Disclaimer: Do I really have to do this again? (Beansmoker sighs) I still don't own Naruto, got it?
Last chapter I got a couple of reviews asking about Kimimaro, so I guess that I'll answer them here. Kimimaro is still alive in this fic, but he wasn't mentioned yet because in the canon I'm pretty sure that he wasn't present when the Kaguya attacked Kirigakure, since all of the bodies of his brethren were being piled up at the same time that he met Orochimaru for the first time. As far as this fic is concerned, he is miles away from the village now, and has already hopped on Orochimaru's bandwagon.
Sorry that it took so long to write this chapter but, at more than 11,000 words, its three times longer than my preferred chapter length. I hope that makes up for el lateness. I strongly suggest that you bring something to snack on with you when you read this, because you might want to take an intermission when you get halfway through. (The halfway mark is at the second break in the page, marked with a row of x's) Here goes nothing...
The blue-haired woman drew out a syringe that was filled with a blue liquid from her anbu vest, being careful not to move the needle in her left hand away from the Mizukage's neck. "This needle is a very concentrated chakra supplement. A single injection from this needle, administered by a medical specialist like me, can restore a person's chakra supply in seconds." She pocketed that needle and pulled out a green one. "This one turns a person invisible for fifteen seconds." She put that one away as well. "And the one that I have aimed at the Kage's neck will kill a man instantly if it so much as touches their bloodstream."
Without Uzumaki Chapter 9:
"You know woman," The Mizukage started, with the Anbu's needle still aimed at his jugular, "I'm not afraid of dying."
The anbu had the Mizukage's arm in a shoulderlock, the type of hold that people use to place someone into handcuffs, so she forced his elbow upwards, stretching out the ligaments in his shoulder until it nearly broke. "Do you want me to kill you?" she said, scowling.
The Mizukage laughed, apparently oblivious to whatever pain he was feeling. "You obviously don't know that I've been waiting for Zabuza to kill me for thirteen years now. I won't bore you with the details, just know that that needle you have pointed at my neck doesn't scare me even a little bit. You can stab me all you want. I won't mind." For some reason, the Mizukage found that funny, so he started to laugh almost maniacally. "Hito!" He yelled loud enough for his lackey on the street to hear. "At least make things fair!"
Hitode dropped Haku onto the ground and dashed over to Zabuza, who was still unable to move due to the three swords sticking out of his chest. Hito grabbed two of them by their handles, threatening to use them to perform a coup d'etat on Zabuza. He twisted them around a bit, garnering a painful howl from his hostage. "Hey woman!" Hito screamed to the anbu. "If you kill the Mizukage, I'll kill Zabuza!"
"Shit." The female anbu cursed. Her grip on the needle in her right hand tightened, as she debated what to do. "What the hell are you trying to pull, bastard!" she said to the Kage.
The Kage turned his head slightly, just glancing at the person behind him out of the corner of his eye. "Just making things a little even. I'm willing to bet that despite all of these threats you keep making, you won't harm a single hair on my head if Zabuza's life is at stake."
"Of course I'll..." The anbu started.
The Mizukage cut her off, "How many years ago was it, when Naruto was originally delivered to this village? Nine, Ten, or was it Eleven? I'm not exactly sure."
"What does that have to do with anything?" she said.
"I distinctly remember that even though I ordered Zabuza to deliver the boy to me himself, it was you who carried baby Naruto into my office in the Tower, all those years ago. Back then, you were a medical-ninja in the Anbu squad who worked just under Zabuza. You specifically asked for the position, you weren't forced in due to a lack of medic-nins, and when I agreed to your request I told you that you were overqualified for the position." The Mizukage said. "You've remained a medical ninja in Zabuza's squad for at least ten years, and resisted promotion three times so far, when I tried to give you Zabuza's rank as Anbu captain so I could place him into my personal guard." The Mizukage said.
The women clenched her teeth, showing signs that she was becoming frustrated with this whole situation. 'What's he getting at?'
Hito, on the other hand, was still standing over Zabuza, with control over three blades sticking into the swordsmen's chest. "What are they doing up there?" he complained to himself. "Are they going to make me stand here all day?"
"When I first became Mizukage," He began, ",the first thing I did was review a list of every ninja in their village, that listed their rank, talents, any bloodline limits or special abilities, training, etc. It took three weeks to sift through that boring list of ninja, and when I was done, there was only two names that I found even remotely interesting. The first one was Momoichi Zabuza. According to the notes that the previous Kage had taken, Zabuza was, "One of my most promising students, who earned the right to be trained by me by defeating over one-hundred students at the academy, with no knowledge of ninjitsu himself. He is now a master of every technique in the silent-killing style, minus one. Judging by his quick progress so far, I am sure that he will become Mizukage someday..." Clearly, those notes were biased, but even so, Zabuza clearly stood out from amongst his peers." The Mizukage took a deep breath so that he could continue talking at this pace.
"The other name in the list that impressed me, was Shimizu Kaede" The Mizukage continued, "The description that he wrote for you was straight and to the point, obviously because you weren't the Third Mizukage's prized student like Zabuza. If I remember correctly, it read, "This ninja has been trained lightly in the silent-killing arts by my first student, Shimizu Kano. In addition to that, she has near perfect chakra control, perfect chakra molding, a large chakra capacity, great skill in taijutsu, (specifically in the department of submissions), talent for genjutsu, and can already use jounin-level water jutsus at the age of ten. Also, she posseses a special trait of the Shimizu clan that allows her body to reject any foreign matter that enters her bloodstream, effectively making her immune to any negative effects from poisons, drugs, diseases, etc. She is the first person in the clan to come up with the idea of turning her ability into a weapon. She does this by carrying extremely dangerous drugs on her person that would kill anyone outside of her clan instantly. She demonstrated this power to me by injecting snake venom directly into her neck with a syringe. Her body showed no sign of weakening even after taking four times the amount of poison that a person should be able to withstand, and she told me after she was finished that absorbing that much poison meant that anyone who came into contact with her would certainly die, because the venom would be present in her sweat..."
"What's with all of this history?" The woman said, stopping the Mizukage's speech. "When are you going to make a point?"
The Mizukage sighed, "When I first read those documents, I assumed that you were stronger than Zabuza, since your areas of expertise spanned all three branches of ninjitsu, and you had a bloodline. I thought it would be fun to see Zabuza be humiliated by a girl, so I put the two of you in the same Anbu squad. You were supposed to rise through the ranks faster than Zabuza, outdo him in missions, make him feel weak. That's what was supposed to happen, but I soon found out that putting you on a squad with him was a mistake." The Kage snickered. "As soon as I brought you in contact with Zabuza, your perfect mission completion record went to hell, your overall skill as a ninja dropped steadily, it's like you became another person."
"It reminds me of an article I read a few days back, in a magazine about the life of a ninja. It says that due to the life and death battles that Ninja must fight in constantly, most of the ninja's life is spent recovering from injuries and training to reduce the chance of injury in future missions. Because of this, ninja have little time to pursue relationships with other people, especially non-ninja. This is especially hard on budding female-ninja, since they have a very high tendency to develop... crushes on other ninja that they work with."
The Mizukage felt Kaede's grip on the syringe aimed at his neck loosen, ever so slightly. He also felt the shoulderlock loosen, and he heard her take several short breaths. 'So, my assumption is right on the money.' "I believe that the reason for your horrible performance as a ninja over the last ten years, was due to the same reasons that cripple two out of every three female ninja alive. You developed a silly crush on Zabuza, and let that get in the way of your missions." He tested the holds on his shoulder, neck, etc. by making slight movements at those points. 'Her grip on my arm is too weak. This is my chance to break free.' "I'll even go as far as to say that you might have been screwing up on purpose. After all, it wouldn't do for you to upstage your crush or make him look bad by being a better ninja than him, isn't that right?" Without warning, the Mizukage wrenched his arm with all of his might, trying to pull it out of the Anbu's grip. However, Kaede resisted the Mizukage's attempt, maintaining her hold on his left arm. She forced the elbow up as far as it would go, until his shoulder snapped.
"Alright," She started, an insane grin covering her face, "so you figured out that I had a little crush on Zabuza when I was younger, it doesn't mean that I'm going to let you get away."
The Mizukage smiled back. "You still have a little crush on Zabuza." he stated dryly.
Kaede's face contorted into a hateful grimace, as she brought the syringe in her right hand higher into the air, "Don't screw with me!" she screeched, before slamming the needle into the Kage's throat, squeezing the red liquid inside the needle into the man's neck. She released the Kage and allowed him to crumple onto the ground, completely motionless. Kaede released a single chuckle, "Bastard."
As Kaede stood above the Kage's lifeless body, she suddenly remembered a little something that she had been forgetting. She shifted her worried gaze towards Zabuza, who still had Hito standing over him, in the perfect position to get revenge for his fallen master. "Zabuza-sama!" she said loudly.
Hito was looking Kaede right in the eye when she looked down, nonchalantly leaning on one of the swords in Zabuza's chest. He maintained eye-contact with the Anbu for several seconds, before he reached out with his left hand and grabbed a sword.
'He's really going to do it!' Kaede realized. "Please don't!" she said.
Hito stuck one of his fingers in his ear, pretending like he couldn't hear, "What was that?"
"Don't kill Zabuza! I'll do whatever you want and..."
"Why would I want to kill Zabuza?" Hito asked, interrupting Kaede's plea. "I don't see any reason why I should..."
Kaede's mouth hung open for a few seconds, before she shook off the shock that she was feeling and started to laugh, 'I get it.' she thought, 'With the Kage dead, why would he need to kill Zabuza? There's no one holding him to it, he can just leave now if he wants to and no one can stop him.'
Hito started laughing as well, and the two of them laughed together for a good minute, before Hito continued speaking, "Yeah. Why would I need to kill Zabuza anyway? After all, the Mizukage's not dead. Just take a good look at him, your needle didn't break his skin."
Kaede turned to her right, only to see the Mizukage pulling himself to his feet. The needle that she stabbed into his neck lied on the ground, in pieces, as if it shattered when it touched the Mizukage. The woman took a close look at the spot where the needle went, and realized that it was covered in a thin layer of a stone that appeared similar to marble.
"I can't believe you actually tried to kill me." The Mizukage said while rubbing his neck, peeling off the marble. "Fortunately for me, my ability to turn water into stone applies to sweat as well." The Kage cracked his neck, and used his right hand to snap his left shoulder into place. He smirked, "You broke my shoulder, woman, but don't think that this means that I won't be able to kill you." He peered towards the street below, first at Hito and Zabuza, then a little further down, where his summon's head was still attached to a building. "Come here, Kouryou!"
The dragon roared in answer, before shooting out of the building that it was in, flying through the street like a bullet, and revealing just how huge it was. It's body was so long that even when its head broke into the base of the building that the Kage and Kaede were standing on, its rear legs still hadn't left the first building. The ground under Kaede's and the Kage's feet started to rumble violently, signifying that the dragon was about to burst through.
The Kage jumped straight up, and Kaede backwards, both avoiding Kouryou's head as it broke through the roof, sending rubble flying every which way. The Kage landed on the head of the dragon, and Kaede landed within inches of the corner of the building. She nearly lost her balance and fell off, but she waved her arms rapildy to regain it.
One piece of the rubble that the dragon kicked up flew through the sky, falling off of the building and towards the street. Naruto, who had been sleeping up until this point, was hit in the face, and just like that he woke up. Naruto found himself unable to rub his head, even though it hurt badly. He found that only his eyes responded when he gave his body a command, so he used them to observe his surroundings and saw that everyone on his side, besides the Anbu, were all unconscious. 'What's going on?' he thought to himself, before noticing that there was a battle going on on the roof of one of the buildings around him.
"Looks like the tables have turned, woman." The Mizukage said. "I'm only going to give you this offer one time. Give up now, because if you continue fighting I will definitely end up killing you."
Kaede reached into her vest and pulled out a syringe that was filled with the red poison used for killing. "No way." she said. This time, instead of brandishing the needle like a weapon, she stabbed herself in the neck with it. "Don't think that I only have one way of getting the poison into you." She raised her fingernails so that the Kage could see them. They changed from the pink of unpainted nails, to a dark red. "Poison can't harm me, remember? So all I have to do is pump myself with enough of it, and I can turn myself into a biological weapon."
The Mizukage frowned. "Fine. We'll do this your way." He pointed at the ground which was at Kaede's feet. "Give her a warning shot, Kouryou!" The dragon barked loudly, before spitting out a blast of water at Kaede, forcing her to jump to the side. After that, the dragon clenched its teeth, causing water to spray out of its mouth over a wider area, like a sprinkler.
Kaede was completely drenched by the attack, but she didn't seem to be harmed further than that.
"Kouryou, underground!" The Kage jumped off of the dragon's head, and the beast resubmerged itself into the ground, leaving a gaping hole in its wake. "I'll end this now." The Kage said.
Kaede felt the ground at her feet start to tremble, so she moved forward, just as Kouryou rose out of the ground where she had been standing. It unleashed a beam of water, forcing Kaede to run towards the Mizukage at full sprint to stay ahead of the blast. When Kaede stopped looking at the dragon, and turned towards her front, she saw that the Mizukage was running towards her as well.
When the two met, Kaede lunged forward, trying to slash the Mizukage with her nails, but the man disappeared just as her attack was about to hit. On a side note, Kouryou stopped spraying water at this point.
"You're ten years too young to beat me." The Kage's voice echoed through the air, but the man himself was no where in sight. "I know jutsus that you can never imagine. Like this one, that one of my spies from Leaf Village showed me."
Pain shot through Kaede's mouth as she felt the Kage's boot slam into her chin . She was sent flying straight up into the air, and just as she reached the annex of her trip, she felt the Kage's index and middle fingers being pressed into her back, in what felt like a handseal.
"This one is a Fire Country favorite, the Dancing Leaf Shadow, or something like that. I'm sticking to your shadow using my chakra." The Kage explained. "Leaf-nin normally follow this one with some taijutsu moves, but that's never been my speciality, so let's try out something else."
Kaede gasped for air as it started to feel like her body was being crushed by some invisible force. She looked at herself and realized that all of the water that she had been drenched with earlier was solidifying into stone. Her arms, legs, and torso were all immobilized by the marble-like rock, only leaving her head free.
The Mizukage moved above the woman by hoisting himself up, using her body as a sort-of mid-air platform. He gave her a military style salute as he kicked her body downwards, saying, "This is goodbye, woman."
Kaede spiraled towards the street, encased in stone and unable to talk or even scream because of how constricted her lungs were. She could only watch as the Kage's sneering face grew smaller and smaller in the distance.
Naruto, who was still immobile, watched as Kaede's body flew off of the building. From the angle that he was laying at, he couldn't see how she had been knocked off of the roof, or even who did it, but one thing was still clear. She was about to splatter onto the street if he didn't do something. 'She's really going to die.' he thought to himself. 'I have to move, I've got to save her.' Naruto willed himself to stand up, but his body wasn't responding. He felt like his brain had been disconnected from his body somehow. 'Shit!' he cursed at himself. 'Shit! Am I just going to sit here, and watch her die! Do something, Naruto!' "Do something, Naruto!" The second time, Naruto actually managed to say something. However, before he could contemplate what this meant, a second piece of rubble fell off of the building above him, and slammed into his face. Naruto was knocked out instantly by the impact.
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"Owie." Naruto said, gingerly rubbing the bruise on his forehead where the rock had hit him. "Wait a minute..." He started. "I can move!" Naruto did a handspring, easily jumping to his feet.
Naruto turned his head, taking in every inch of the dark, dank hallway that he had somehow found himself in. "Where's Zabuza?" he asked. "And Haku, those brothers, and that woman? Where did everybody go?" He scratched his head. "When did I get in here?" Naruto looked around the hallway some more. As far as he could tell, he was in what appeared to be dark, moist dungeon with thousands of small cells lining the walls for miles in every direction. "How do I get out of here?" Naruto wondered, but a low rumbling to his left provided him with what appeared to be an answer to that question. Naruto started to walk in the direction of that noise.
Naruto slowly paced through the hallway, his feet splashing in the inch-high green water that filled this place. He came to a fork in the hallway, with paths leading to his right and straight. He decided, after much debate, to take the right path, when he heard the noise coming from that direction.
After what felt like an eternity of walking, Naruto stumbled upon a particularly enormous cage. He smelled that a rank scent was coming from the cage, signifying that something was in there that was either dying, or already dead. Naruto started to approach the cage, which was so dark inside that he couldn't see a thing, when he saw a large amount of motion within. The enormous tail of some animal crashed into the bars, startling Naruto and causing him to jump backwards. The ground started to rumble when the tail made contact with the bars.
"There's something in there." Naruto said to himself. He watched the furry, brown tails of the beast for several more minutes, and began to get used to the darkness in the cage. The animal had four legs, like a dog, but the shape of its ears meant that it was more similar to a fox. The fox was facing away from Naruto, and there was a scraping noise coming from the wall at the back of the cage. Naruto leaned his body so that he could see what the animal was doing, and realized that it was raking its nails against a large seal on the wall in front of it. Naruto realized that the seal was exactly the same as the one on his stomach. "What do you think you are doing with my seal, bastard!"
The Fox turned his head around, his enormous eyes observing the intruder in his dungeon. "What does it look like, human? I am making my escape." The fox tapped its claw against the seal in front of him. "I'm going to claw right through this seal! Just look at it, in only ten years I've already made so much progress!"
Naruto squinted, trying to see where the Fox had made so much progress. He looked at the seal, which looked completely undamaged, composed of thick, black lines that didn't even look as if they had been clawed at. "You haven't done anything to the seal! It's still perfect!"
The fox laughed heartily, "Perfect it says. What a stupid creature." He pointed at the upper right corner of the seal with his nose. "Look right here, kit, at this thinning line." Sure enough, a small portion of the seal looked a little bit thinner than the rest. "I'll be out of here in no time!"
"You, baka!" Naruto said. "At the rate you're going, you won't be done for one hundred years! I'll be dead by then!"
The fox stopped clawing the seal, and its head drooped a little. "I know that," It turned around so that it was facing Naruto. "but clawing the seal gives me something to do. You wouldn't believe how unbelievably boring it is in here, kit. Just the thought that I'm never going to leave this place again is too much for me, so I try to keep my mind focused on other things." The giant fox sighed. "I'd give anything to feel the taste of human flesh on my tongue again."
"Why are you in here anyway?" Naruto asked.
"I don't know. I was just eating dinner when those damn humans turned on me." The Fox said angrily. "I had been nice enough that I limited myself to only eating every thirty years, but those humans just don't understand how the food chain is supposed to work. Animals eat plants, Humans eat animals, Demons eat humans. It's so simple, but the humans just have to screw things up, don't they? I should have eaten all of them, before that damn animal got the chance to summon that Shikigami."
Naruto scratched his head as the fox continued to talk. A thought forced its way into his head as he listened to the fox's rant. "Wait a minute, you're the Kyubi aren't you?"
"You know about me, kit?"
"Yeah. Zabuza mentioned you once or twice. He said that you are supposed to be some kind of demon. You attacked villages in Fire Country for hundreds of years, but when I was born, Konoha's Hokage defeated you and sealed you into my stomach using some sort of Forbidden Jutsu."
"Well, that's one way to put what happened." The fox muttered. "However, I have always thought of it more as a tie than an outright victory for him." 'He did end up being sealed as well, after all.' The Kyubi cleared its throat. "Why have you entered my domain, human?"
Naruto got into the thinking pose, 'Why did I come here? I remember being hit by something, hard, but what was I doing before that?' A light bulb flashed in his head. "Damn, I almost forgot!"
"What is it?"
"I've got to save that woman, before she dies! But I can't move my body outside of here, because I don't have any chakra left..." Naruto brainstormed for a couple of seconds. "I figured it out!" He said as his brainstorm produced fruit. "I remember Zabuza saying that you demons were made of chakra..." Naruto pointed his finger at the Kyubi. "Give me all of your chakra now, you damn fox!"
The Kyubi growled at him, "What did you say to me, human?"
"You heard me, you fox-bastard!" Naruto answered. "I want every last ounce of your chakra, now! You're stuck here, and by the time you get the seal open, we'll both already be dead. Face it, you're never going to need that chakra of yours again. It would be a waste for you not to give it to me."
"No dice, kit!" The Kyubi roared. "Even if I no longer have any use for my chakra, there is no way in hell I'm going to give it to a tiny, insignificant, runt like you!"
"But I need your chakra." Naruto pleaded. "I've got chakra depletion. If I don't get some extra chakra, then that woman's going to die, doesn't that matter to you?"
"Of course it matters to me. Every time you experience a negative emotion; like sadness, pain, or anger, the stench in here gets worse, the lights darken, and it gets even damper. Frankly, I don't want to see what would become of this place if you lose an important ally. But the fact stands, that even if I gave you all the chakra in the world, there's no way that you can save anyone with your current level of power."
"What are you trying to say?" Naruto said.
"Have you ever heard of the phrase, 'It's not how much chakra you have, it's how you use it'?"
"Of course not. You just made that up, didn't you?"
"That phrase means that even if a genin has more chakra than a Kage, he's still a genin. The Mizukage could still rip you to pieces, even if I fed you chakra until I died. Do you understand, human?"
Naruto scratched his head, "I guess so." Something clicked as he said that. "Wait a minute, you know what's going on outside of here?"
The Kyubi cleared its throat, avoiding the question. "Let's make a little deal, kit." It started. "I didn't get my nine tails by sitting on my ass and growing them. I had to earn these tails, by beating down the other demons to gain my rank. We each started out with five tails, but each time we battled one another, the balance of power shifted towards the winner. For a small price, I can show you the unstoppable technique that earned me my tails. Something that no normal ninja can match, not even the Mizukage. I'm sure that you'll find it useful."
"A move that strong exists?" Naruto asked.
"It's not just a normal move, human. It's an attack that only I, the Nine-tailed Demon Fox can utilize! And also you, of course, since I'm inhabiting your body. "
"Oh. Then teach me this move of yours." Naruto said.
"It would take months, maybe even a year to teach it to you. Even then, it might be several more years before you completely master all of its uses. For now, the best I can do is use it for you. In other words, you tell me when, and I'll slay the Kage in your stead."
Naruto thought about this, 'That does make sense.' "Alright, let's do it!" he said.
"Wait, kit. We haven't discussed the fee, yet."
"What fee?" Naruto asked.
"I'm not just going to give my power to a human without expecting something in return. There's a little something I want you to give me in exchange for helping you."
"Well." Naruto said. "What do you want?"
"Nothing too valuable, just a little something that you have but don't need..."
... Much time passes in Naruto's head as he irons out the details of this exchange with the Kyubi...
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...Meanwhile...
Kaede was halfway on her journey to splattering onto the ground, and she finally managed to stop panicking at the prospect of dying in a few seconds. She began to contemplate how to get out of this situation. 'Come on, think. Think.' she took a short breath, the best she could do with a tight layer of stone crushing her. 'Okay. The stone's constricting my fingers so I can't do jutsus, but...' She examined her current position as best she could, while continuing to spiral towards the ground. 'My head's still free! What if I...' She tried to bite into the stone, and grinded her teeth against it. This had no effect. 'Kuso.' She thought as a piece of stone broke off, stabbing her in the gums. She spit it to the side. 'Damn it, this is taking too long.' The ground was growing painfully close at this point. 'I can't die this way. I had so much more to do, so much to tell...' A lightbulb appeared over her head as she had a brilliant thought. 'Wait a minute, didn't I train for this?'
Flashback to nineteen years ago, where an Academy Teacher in Kirigakure's Ninja Academy was teaching a crowd of students at the edge of a tall building, near the gates at the front of the village. At the front of the crowd of students were Momoichi Zabuza and Shimizu Kaede.
"Alright, Cadets!" The Teacher started. "Today we are all going to start on a brand-new technique!"
"Are we going to learn how to teleport?" One nameless student from the back asked.
"Or how to fly?" Another one said.
"No!" The Teacher said angrily. "And keep your damn mouths shut until I finish speaking. Now where was I?" He thought about it for a second. "Oh that's right! Now we have already finished with the Ninja Sprint, and we've learned how to improve our jumping heights using chakra. So it's time to start on some aerial techniques."
"Why would we need to know that?" A young Zabuza asked.
"Don't think that just because of that little performance you put on last year," 'Honestly, he thinks that just because he killed a bunch of children that he's important now.' "That I will forgive your constant questioning. Aerial combat techniques are important because the air is by far the most dangerous place to end up in during a fight. You can't dodge projectiles, and you can't adjust your position to avoid explosives left on the ground. At worst, you'll run into a taijutsu user that will take advantage by knocking you into the air before a finishing move. That's why we are all going to practice the three halves to proper, aerial fighting today. Aerial Taijutsu, Aerial Recovery, and finally, landing from a great height. Zabuza, since you are so doubtful of me, why don't you start us off with the last one. Jump off of this building and land in the cat stance. Make sure you don't break anything, because no medic-nin's are on duty right now."
"I would," Zabuza started "but she said that she wants to go first." He gestured towards the girl standing next to him.
"No, I didn't." A young Kaede protested, before she was shoved by Zabuza off of the roof, falling upside down towards the ground.
The Teacher watched her fall, "Since you're upside down, the cat stance isn't going to work!"
"WHAT!" The girl screamed, rapidly approaching the ground.
"Use your shoulder! Spin your body and absorb the impact shoulder first!"
"That's right! I could do that!" Kaede remembered. She forced her body to start spinning by gently leaning her shoulder downwards. Maintaining her balance, she allowed herself to spin faster and faster until it became difficult to see. To anyone looking on, she looked like a red, (On account of the color of Kiri's Vests), spinning top, the colors on her clothes becoming blurs in the air.
When she finally reached the ground, all of that spinning paid off. Instead of simply smacking into the ground, she ended up bouncing off of it, the stone that she had been imprisoned in shattering off on impact. She tumbled through the air, using one final spin to position herself to land on all fours. Pain shot through her left arm and leg when she finished sliding across the ground, the inertia from the spinning moving her across it. 'Damn, I broke them both.' She forced herself to her feet, while holding her broken arm and favoring her broken leg.
She heard a noise to her left, that slowly grew louder and louder as time passed, so she turned that way and looked.
There was nothing there.
Kaede sighed once she was sure that she had just been imagining it and started to limp the other away, towards Zabuza and the others.
"Surprise!"
Just as Kaede looked up, her face was greeted with a fist. She was sent flying through the air, and it took all she had in her to take a look at the person who hit her. It was Hito, who had apparently walked over to her while she was pulling that spin in the air. 'Damn' Kaede thought, 'I knew I'd forget something."
The Teacher watched on as a young Kaede dragged herself off of the ground after her landing. "Well, I must say... That was one of the best landings I've ever seen. However, make sure that you roll all of the way onto your feet, in fighting stance, after the roll. It doesn't matter how much of the impact you divert during the landing if you leave yourself open when you do it. Any decent ninja will take advantage if their enemy ends up that high in the air and doesn't check their blindspots."
"I don't know what to say." Hito said in present day. "I never thought that you were going to survive the fall. That trick you did was really something..." He started to dig through the pockets of his jacket, obviously searching for something. "Sadly, the Kage has left it up to me to finish you off. No hard feelings, all right?" A smile appeared on his face as he found what he was looking for. He pulled out what appeared to be some fishing line and some fishing hooks.
Kaede somehow managed to get back on her feet, holding a single kunai in her good arm. "What are those hooks for? There's no fish here."
Hito laughed. "Well, seeing as how no one else is left and you're injured, it would be pointless for me to just outright kill you. This is the perfect time for me to practice all of those jutsus I've been working on." He started to twist the fishing line through his fingers, stretching it out so that the line zig-zagged from finger to finger, with the fishing hooks hanging from it at various places. "Let's see you avoid the "Cat's Cradle" with a broken leg."
Kaede's eyes widened. 'He knows that technique?'
... 3 minutes later...
Kaede was completely wrapped in wires and fish hooks at this point, the lines hooked into the ground in a circle around her. To make matters worst, the fish hooks that were hanging from the lines weren't just for show. Painful can't even begin to describe what it's like to have fish hooks literally anchored into your body.
Hito stretched out the fishing lines between his fingers and bit it, allowing him to pull his fingers free of it. He allowed it to drop to the ground, leaving his enemy in a horrificly bad situation. He started to do handseals, "I think that we've done enough playing for now."
Kaede struggled against the line, but that only caused it to wrap tighter around her. "Go to hell."
Hito inhaled deeply once his handseals were finished, and his torso expanded greatly, signifying that this was a large-scale attack. "Water Drill Jutsu!" He spit out a high-speed blast of water which was twisting rapidly, like a drill.
As the attack approached Kaede, she realized that the ground under it was having spiral-shaped grooves carved into it, meaning this wasn't just a plain-old blast of water. 'If that hits me... I'll be ripped apart!' Realizing that this situation was, somehow, even worse than being encased in a block of stone and knocked off of a building, she closed her eyes and prayed that she wouldn't be ripped into a hundred pieces in a few seconds.
... Elsewhere...
Naruto's experience with the Kyubi was finally over and his deal was made, so his short time in the land of the unconscious ended at this point. His eyes shot open, and he was able to observe the real world, outside of the Kyubi's den, for the first time in nearly five minutes. However, something was different about the world this time around. The sky, normally blue, appeared to be a light shade of orange, and everything else in the world had a slight reddish tint to it.
Naruto stood up from the ground and looked at his left arm, and quickly realized what the problem was. 'The Kyubi's chakra is actually visible to the naked eye.' he thought. Right before Naruto got a chance to analyze himself any further, he sensed a great deal of motion to his left. He looked over there and saw that an enormous, spinning wave of water was quickly approaching one of his teammates...
...Kaede cringed as a wave of water hit her face. 'So this is how it ends...' Kaede stood there, eyes closed, awaiting her demise. However, she soon realized that nothing was happening. "The water has stopped." she muttered. She opened one eye, and saw something she really didn't expect.
Between her and Hito, was a boy with golden hair, who was bathed in a red aura. The water blast that was supposed to be the end of Kaede had been thwarted by his sword, split in half so that it ripped the ground apart in a v-shape at his sides, instead of extending behind him to where his ally was.
Still holding his sword with only his right hand, even after the water that he had stopped was already a harmless puddle on the ground, Naruto started to turn backwards towards the person that he saved. "Looks like I got here just in time, eh?" When his body had finally rotated enough for Naruto to see who was talking to, he shuddered at the sight. The female anbu that would be dead if he wasn't for him, was caught in what was certainly one of the most horrible jutsus he had ever seen.
She was tied up from head to toe in razor-thin wires, that kept her utterly immobile. The lines kept her arms pulled behing her back, with her knees held so that they were slightly bent. The amount of wire used here was simply ridiculous. To make matters worst, the wires weren't wrapped in a way that kept them held in place. An array of fishing hooks, that were hanging off of the wires at random intervals, were literally anchoring the wire in place, causing thin streams of blood to run down their victim's body where they were piercing into her skin. A pool of blood at Kaede's feet showed just how dangerous this technique actually was.
'Using a technique like this, is that guy a sadist?' Naruto thought. He aimed his sword at Kaede. "Don't worry woman, I'll cut you free!" he declared.
"Na...ru...to" Kaede struggled out, despite one particularly annoying hook that was wrapped around her neck. "Don't... worry about me. I'm... fine. Keep your eyes... on your... opponent."
Naruto turned around, seeing that Hito was twisting the fishing line between his fingers again.
"That's right, Naruto." He started, mocking Kaede. "You should keep your eyes on me if you want to survive for longer than a minute. Never mind that woman behind you." He slowly rose his fingers in front of his face, so Naruto could see what he was doing. He stretched the fishing line that he was holding out, so that it was now a series of straight lines zig-zagging from finger to finger.
Naruto eyed the fishing line curiously, 'That wire's just like the stuff he wrapped that woman in. The ends of it are extending out of his hands and is submerged in the ground.' He followed where the wire led to with his eyes. 'Is he going to try and capture me with it like he did with her?' Naruto watched Hito's movements carefully, ready to dodge an attack if any signs of one appeared.
"That's right, Naruto, follow the birdie..." Hito whispered to himself. He made a wide motion with his hands, ripping the wire through the ground.
The lines exploded through the earth, whipping up chunks of rocks as they rapidly made their way towards Naruto. Naruto took up a defensive stance with his blade held in front of him, however, just before the attack met with Naruto the wires went limp.
Naruto heard a blood-curdling scream from behind him, and turned around, only to see a bloody mess where Kaede had been standing. "He attacked her instead of me!" he realized. He had turned just in time to see her topple to the ground, covered in deep, bleeding gashes that must have been made by Hito's attack. He saw the fishing line be pulled into holes in the ground in a circle around the woman, the hooks at the ends of it leaving a trail of blood in a spiral around her. 'Shit! I should have been keeping an eye on her.' He thought. 'I let Hito distract me and he cut her to ribbons. I let her die.'
It was at this point that Kaede coughed, and blood sprayed from her mouth. Blood was beginning to pool around her, and her eyes were starting to dilate.
'Wait a minute... dead people can't cough, which means that she's still not dead!' Naruto realized. 'If I get over there, she still might have a chance of surviving.' He ran towards her, yelling, "Hold on! Don't die yet!"
Just as he was drawing near Kaede, Naruto felt the ground shudder and a wall of water burst out of the ground in front of him. He started to jump backwards, but a second wall rose behind him, cutting him off. Two more appeared at his sides, boxing him in. Naruto moved one of his hands near one of the four walls, testing if they were solid, and the skin was almost pulled off of his fingers by the speed at which the water was moving. 'Shit! I'm trapped.' he thought. Smug laughter began to fill Naruto's ears as the performer of this jutsu made his presense known again.
"This is what you call, killing two birds with one stone." Hito said, now that Naruto was firmly in the middle of his trap. "I knew that you'd be too stupid to figure out that I left your friend alive on purpose. You just ran right over to her and got caught in my Water Cage Jutsu as soon as her life was threatened. Now I can kill the two of you at my leisure."
Naruto observed the wall of water that was around him, and a glint of light that reflected off of an object hidden in one of the walls caught his eyes. As he studied it closer, he realized that there was more than one object hidden behind the waterfalls around him, and that they appeared to be slowly approaching him. 'What are those?'
Hito laughed. "You know what, kid! I've just decided that a normal death is much too good for you! A stupid bastard like you should be fish food!" He moved his hands together to start a seal string. "I'm going to send you to meet a friend of mine, in Paradise!"
Naruto was still staring at the shiny objects in the water cage, when he finally realized what they were. 'Oh no.' He looked back over at Kaede, who was still lying motionless in a pool of her own blood. 'I'm surrounded in fishing hooks, which means he's going to use that jutsu again. If I don't block it, I'm going to end up looking like her!' Naruto drew his sword as the water cage began to grow smaller and smaller, and swung it into the closest wall. It bounced off, sending Naruto reeling so that he stumbled backwards into another wall. It tore through his back, sending blood flying into the air, and then all four walls of water dispersed allowing the wires that formed Hito's "Cat's Cradle" to whip around Naruto and capture him. As the hooks dug into Naruto's body, and the wire pulled so tightly around him that he couldn't breathe, Naruto felt a dreadful emotion overtake him. 'This... could... kill... me!' he realized.
Naruto felt blood begin to drip out of his shoulders, legs, and head, where the hooks were firmly anchored into place. He looked around, desperate for a way out of this attack, and his eyes centered on Hito, who had both eyes closed, and had began chanting something under his breathe.
"The Ultimate Power of Sanbi: Tengoku."
"Eh?" Naruto uttered, despite a particularly annoying wire that was wrapped around his neck. However, he got little time to be confused, as he immediately noticed a series of blue runes that were appearing on the ground in a circle around him. Mounds of water rose out of each seal, stretching into the air around Naruto until they were shaped more like tendrils than anything else. Naruto tried to wriggle his way out of the wires, but they pulled even tighter around him, nearly cutting off his circulation. Then came the tendrils...
Out of each of twelve runes, a tentacle was formed, and each and every one of these tentacles wrapped themselves around Naruto, squeezing even more of his life out of him. Naruto felt the world grow blurry and out of focus, and a pool of water slowly appeared at his feet. The tentacles began to drag him downwards towards it, and before long, he found himself completely submerged in water, darkness surrounding him in all directions.
The tentacles disappeared at this time, leaving Naruto so deep in water that he could barely see through the surface. Naruto looked upwards and saw that the buildings that surrounded him a few seconds ago were all gone, nothing that even resembled Kirigakure in sight. "This isn't possible." He said to no one in particular. "How did Hito manage to teleport me away from the village? Did he do it with that technique he used?"
Naruto heard a loud rumble in front of him, and looked in that direction, only to see thousands of eyes staring back at him. A massive fish was rapidly approaching him, and it was something that someone in Naruto's position certainly didn't need to see. It looked like a fifty foot tall shark, with three dorsal fins and three tails, that was covered in so many tendrils that only its mouth was visible from beneath them. All other aspects of its body were left to the imagination.
Naruto tried to swim away, but found that he was unable to move. He looked at himself and saw nothing that should prevent him from doing so, despite feeling like he was still tied up with wires.
"Hello child." The massive monster bellowed once it was close enough to, the voice of some enormous women coming from her monsterous, fang-filled mouth.
"What the hell?" Naruto said. He observed as bubbles came out of his mouth, along with his voice. "How did I get underwater? And why am I still unable to move if those wires are gone?" He asked the shark-like beast.
"Why, that's all because you are now in my world, Tengoku. Hito sent you here, just as he did with that woman a few minutes ago. I hope that you will be palatable unlike her."
"You are going to eat me?" Naruto asked
"Of course. Why else would Hito send you here? When the Mizukage put the key to the doors of my world in his left eye, it became Hito's responsibility to keep me well fed. You are the first appetizer he's sent my way in months." The monster opened her enormous mouth, forming a whirlpool as she rapidly intook water.
Naruto himself didn't appear to be moving towards it, just all of the water around him. For some reason, he felt locked in place, out of the monster's reach even.
The monster closed her mouth again. "Ugh. Why does Hito keep doing this? One more time and he'll be the next soul I devour. I can't eat things that are tied down, which means that I have to digest you externally." She sighed. "Oh well." The monster's tentacles broke away from her body and started to drift towards Naruto.
One brushed against his leg, cutting a deep gash into it. "God damnit!" Naruto howled as more and more of the tentacles drifted towards him, scarring him badly. "This pain! Stop it, please!"
"Sorry, human, but this is the way things must be." The shark said. "If I don't eat you, then there is no telling how long it will be before Hito sends me another meal. Starving to death is not a suitable way for a demon to fall."
Naruto continued to cry out, as the pain continued, but a third voice, not his or the sharks, helped him to get a grip on himself. He heard it speaking to him quietly at first, trying to reach him through the depths of his own mind, but it slowly grew louder and louder until it filled his ears, blocking out all other sound.
"What are you doing, kit? If you let this continue, the Sanbi is going to eat you!"
"Kyubi?" Naruto said, listening as the voice continuing talking to him.
"Come on, kit! If you can't break free with your own powers, than why haven't you asked me for mine? It's the only way for you to escape!"
"But I don't have my sword with me, Kyuubi. You said that without a blade, your attack is useless." Naruto said.
"What are you talking about? Your sword is still in your right hand. Even Sanbi's illusions can't change that."
Naruto's eyes opened wide. "An illusion?"
"The Sanbi's the legendary three-tailed illusionary demon. It can only exist in illusions, and genjutsu is the only way that it can attack. However, once its victim is caught in its "paradise", there is absolutely no escape. The only way to get out of here is to force the Sanbi to release you. To do that, all you have to do is use your sword and summon my powers."
'If this is an illusion like the Kyubi says, then I won't be able to close my right hand, because of the sword I would be holding in it.' Naruto tried to close it, and sure enough it was impossible. 'Then if I grab the sword with my other hand.' Naruto gripped his blade, and immediately felt the Kyubi's power flowing through him at full force, sending a wave of power out of his body. "This is only an illusion!" he realized.
The Sanbi's thousand eyes grew angry as the tentacles that she was sending at Naruto began to be repelled by some invisible force. "What are you trying to do, human?"
Naruto smirked as he heard several popping noises, the wires that were wrapped around him exploding off, ripped apart by the Kyubi's chakra. "Now I'm free."
"Not for long, human! Without those pesky wires in the way, I am going to devour you whole!" The Sanbi rushed towards him as fast as she could, opening her mouth as wide as it could go.
Naruto pointed his sword towards the massive fish-demon, and his blade was engulfed in some sort of black fire. "Let's go, Kyubi!"
"Alright, kit! I'll be taking control of your left arm now, and together we will perform my signature move. The Kyubi's Roar!"
The Sanbi made her way to Naruto, and closed her massive jaws around Naruto's small form, but before she even got a chance to swallow, Naruto's sword emerged from her face, piercing the demon through the roof of her mouth.
The Sanbi roared as black fire erupted from the wound that Naruto made, searing the flesh from her face. She spit Naruto out, but even after his sword left her mouth, the pain didn't end. The very color of her skin started to melt away around the wound, leaving the front of the Sanbi's face black and white, devoid of the blue that it was recently composed of. "You are no ordinary human!" She bellowed to Naruto. "This attack is exactly like the Kyubi's! My very soul has been damaged by your sword! I fear that if I keep you here, it will be the end of me. Take your leave, child!" The Sanbi swam away from Naruto, releasing him from her illusion.
Naruto closed his eyes and then opened them again, and found himself in Kirigakure once again, the Sanbi no where sight, and Hito's cats cradle lied broken, in pieces at his feet. He saw that Hito was exactly where he was before, except that he was standing now, and he looked absolutely pissed.
"You... just... escaped... Sanbi's Paradise. How the hell, could anyone, escape Sanbi's Paradise!" Hito's face was pulled into an expression of absolute hate and disdain for whatever he concentrating on. "I'm going to rip you into itty... bitty... little pieces with my bare hands, and scatter you into the wind!" He rushed towards Naruto at full sprint, unarmed, with every intention of causing the blond-haired kid unimaginable bodily harm.
"Oh yeah! Bring it on!" Naruto yelled back, he matched Hito's assault, running in the opposite direction directly towards Hito, his sword pointed at him.
The two clashed, and the end result was Hito launching a wild punch at Naruto's jaw, and Naruto stabbing his sword into Hito's stomach. Hito's punch sent Naruto flying, but the sword remained embedded in his chest, so he ripped it out and threw it to the side. "This sword of yours doesn't even itch." he said as the hole in his stomach began to heal. "I'm going to enjoy ripping you to pieces."
Naruto hit the ground hard, his head hurting horribly from Hito's punch. 'Even with Kyubi giving me extra chakra, his punches still hurt like hell.'
Hito walked over, cracking his fists. "I'm going to grind you to dust." He said.
Naruto looked at Hito and started to laugh. "Looks like I got you." A diagonal line was starting to reveal itself in Hito's chest, and blood began to stream out of it.
"Huh?" Hito said. Suddenly, he felt pain shoot through his body, stemming from the diagonal line, not the point where the sword stabbed him. "What the hell?" he muttered, dropping onto one knee. 'What's wrong with me? That kid's little toothpick can't possible be the cause of this pain.' He thought. It was at this point that black fire began to engulf his wound, ripping all of the strength from his body, and causing him to fall to the ground.
"That's what you get." Naruto started. "Being so confident in your regenerative power that you would willingly take a blow from an opponent's sword. But I knew you'd do that and took advantage." He revealed that he was concealing a kunai, that he had been holding in his left hand.
"Can't... move." Hito muttered. A glazed look took over his eyes, as blood began to pool under him at a very fast rate. The flames had spread from his wound and were beginning to engulf more and more of his body. "Damn I hate... fire."
By this point, Naruto was standing on his feet, brandishing the kunai like a trophy as he made his way over to Hito, "You see, bastard. I learned a new move while I was asleep."
"New... move?"
"That's right, my new sensei, the Kyuubi no Yuki, taught it to me. I still don't understand exactly how it works, but he says that it's about as strong as moves get. Basically, I hit you with his chakra and he handles it from there. That fire that's covering your body means that it's working."
"But... what... did... you... do?" Hito mumbled, still lying face down in the ground.
Naruto formed his thinking pose. "Oh that..." He thought about it for a while, and then shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure, so I'll put it into the Kyubi's words. He says that I severed your lifeforce itself from your body, by exposing it to a blast made up of his chakra. Then I damaged your lifespan by cutting it apart using a bladed weapon. Just forming the attack causes the weapon used for it to glow with black chakra, so I had to use an alternate version so that you wouldn't see it coming. If I had used my sword, your life as a ninja would be over, and your lifespan would have been cut in half. But I knew that you would notice it if my sword was glowing when I rushed you with it, so I used my kunai instead." Naruto made a slicing motion with the kunai. "I snuck in the kunai slash right after I sunk my sword in your chest. All that did was cut a few years off of your life and reduce the amount of chakra in your body to nil but that doesn't mean that I can't finish the job now." He started to look around. "As soon as I figure out where the hell you threw my sword."
"Heh heh heh" Hito made a sound that sounded similar to a laugh but much weaker. "Behind you."
Naruto turned in the direction that Hito indicated, only to find that his sword was in the hands of someone else.
"Looking for something, Naruto-kun." the person said, stretching his hand out towards Naruto with the sword in it.
Naruto looked upwards, and surprise was etched on his face as he realized who he was looking at. "The Mizukage? Do I have to beat you down next?" Naruto didn't even see the Kage's hand move, but he felt it. The blow was unbelievably quick, hard, and painful, striking Naruto directly in the forehead. He fell unconscious the instant that the punch made contact.
The Mizukage stood over Naruto's unconscious body, the boy's sword still in his hand. "Learning an unstoppable move in his sleep, and then beating my strongest underling and the Sanbi no Isonade using it. I certainly didn't expect Naruto to perform more exceptionly than even Zabuza today." he said. The Mizukage turned towards Hito, who had begun to crawl towards him, black fire still burning all over him. The Mizukage pulled out a scroll and did a few handseals, "Black Fire Sealing Technique!" and captured the fire in the scroll.
"That kid, he's stronger than he looks." Hito muttered to the Kage, finally free of the flames. "Him and Haku. Will we be taking them both?"
"You know, Hitode, they say that great minds think alike." The Mizukage said, smiling. "Of course we will be taking them both. Naruto has finally become useful to me. It would be a crime not to make use of his new powers. Both Naruto and Haku will be my loyal servants from now on, as Zabuza once was. At least, they will be as soon as I kill off all of their other allies. Speaking of which," The Kage drew Naruto's sword from its sheath, and held it in front of his face horizontally, staring at its blade intently. "Wouldn't it be ironic if every member of Naruto's current "family" was slain by his own sword?"
"Very ironic." Hito answered.
"But it wouldn't do to use it in its current form. I better reveal its true self first." The Mizukage continued. He whispered some gibberish to the blade before uttering a simple phrase to it, "Release Yourself". The blade morphed, changing greatly in appearance before the Kage moved it to his right hand and begun slowly marching towards Zabuza. "Momochi-san will be the first to go." He said, raising Naruto's blade high over his head, pointing it at the heavens. As if in response to the Mizukage's gesture, and the current situation, a white blanket of snow began to pour out of the sky. "Bye, Zabuza-kun."
Hito smirked from his position on the ground. "Don't build it up so much, just kill him."
"Patience, Hito." The Mizukage said, turning around to face his underling. "Things like this are best done carefully. It wouldn't do if I got Zabuza's blood all over my robes."
Hito laughed at him. "Why would blood matter to someone like you? Just look at your hat. It still has bloodstains on it from its previous owner." His eyes shifted to the kanji on the front of the Kage's shirt. "If you ask me, you should make a bloody mess out of Zabuza just so that shirt would match your-" Hito's statement was cut short, as the sound of a spinning object ripping through muscle, skin, bone, and the Kage's shirt simeoutaneously, filled the air. He watched in horror as an ivory white javelin flew right through the Kage, sending blood flying into the air and embedding itself into the ground right next to Hito's face. "Holy Shit!" he said, observing the spear and immediately identifying that it was, in fact, made of bone. Then he looked at the Kage again and verified that he did have a hole in his chest that was produced by the aforementioned javelin.
The Mizukage fell on one knee, clutching the bloody hole that was now in his chest. "A javelin, made of bone... right through my chest..." He spit out blood. "This means... there's another Kaguya left alive." He looked at Hito, and then at himself. "In this condition we can't handle another fight. We will be... retreating, Hitode."
The Mizukage dropped Naruto's sword and ran over to his ally, before lifting him up and running away.
Three minutes passed as the unseen Kaguya remained in hiding, watching to make sure that the Kage had really left and this wasn't actually some kind of trick. She let out a sigh of relief when she was sure that the coast was clear. She stepped out of her hiding spot just inside of an abandoned building that was adjacent to the area that the unconscious bodies of Zabuza and his posse lied. She walked over to Zabuza's body and made sure that he was still okay. "It was so stressful Zabuza-sama, watching from a distance while he hurt you," she said to the man's unconscious body. "But in the end it paid off, since I ended up saving everyone. I guess that makes us even now." She finished the last statement with a giggle. "But I think I'll bring all of you somewhere safe, as an added favor."
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I have finally come up with my own gimmick, my calling card as an author so to speak. Whenever I put a character in a situation that should kill them, but have them hang onto life by just a smidget, I'll use a "bloody cough" to signify that they are still, in fact, alive, the reasoning being that dead people don't cough. Be sure to watch out for it in future fics that I write.
If you were wondering why it took me so long to submit this baby, it was mostly because I've been spending a lot of time stressing over certain parts. I don't really like how it came out, but it was the best I could do with my current level of writing powers. The problem lies in the fact that I am horrible at drama. The story has been fine so far because these chapters have been action packed, with few emotional events, but if I ever wanted to make the story a little more serious I would need some help. That's why I've decided that I need to find a beta reader who can help me with the tough spots in my story like this one. If you're interested, then PM me about it.
