Thanks go to Nightelf, Griever, MageOhki, Cornuthaum, Vasey, Typhonis and a hefty dose of stress that I had to kill by writing this as well as to TFF. You know who you are.
Edited by FinalMax
Reload
Chapter 9
"Hammer to fall."
The undermesh didn't exactly fit, but that proved to be no problem - he grew into it until it was like a glove. Boots instead of light silk slippers and dark canvas pants instead of comfortable slacks - all stark, but well made. For effect, all for effect.
"Hmm." Sasuke-chan cocked her head and Naruto frowned.
"What?" He asked, rotating his arm so that the undermesh settled in properly.
"You look good in black." Sasuke said flippantly. "Pity you don't wear it more."
The blond snorted, tugging on the soft cloth bracers. Armored sleeves were sometimes painful to wear if they moved too much and Naruto hated to rub his forearms raw.
He punched forward a few times, to ensure everything was setting in right before spreading his fingers and stretching his hand to the left.
The armor hovered, held in place by the chakra strings in the key points, looking like a ghostly warrior. The chest plate, the pauldrons, the vambraces and the gauntlets. A complete upper plate - light but still more than archaic enough. A segment shinobi armor - he was surprised he found one, and that he found matching greaves as well! But then Coral was full of strange stuff if one knew where to look.
All black. Matte black, but darker than his undermesh. A nice contrast, as Sasuke put it. Naruto didn't care to be honest. But he cared about the effect quite a bit, so he listened. Pity he didn't have a full-face helmet, but then that nice Mist rebreather would take care of that. Besides, he never liked helmets much.
The armor was of shinobi make, which meant it was almost absurdly easy to put on - or take off, if one needed to. Naruto amused himself by tugging on the strings, stretching them enough so that the armor piece seemed to hover to him. Most wouldn't be able to, but then most didn't have the sheer power reserves he did. Pity he couldn't affix them to things and 'tying' them over stuff was a time-consuming effort, or he'd have quite a bit of fun with them in combat.
He blinked.
'Hmm... Fuuton ninjutsu?' he pondered. 'Gotta look into that. Pain in the ass on control, but if I can blow rocks towards people, I can make 'em hover where I want 'em, right?'
"Oh I know that look." Sasuke-chan rolled her eyes. "Please do focus on 'here' and 'now', dobe."
"Aww, shut up." The blond grumbled, clasping the breastplate on. "Philistine."
"Takes one to know one, blondie." She shrugged with a smile, before getting up from a large, stone chair - more fitting to be a giant throne - she previously 'sculpted' out of the floor via Doton ninjutsu.
It actually took far more skill than one might suspect, seeing as it was permanent, solid and didn't crumble after chakra was released. Not to mention Sasuke 'drawing' more stone to prevent the floor form crumbling. Sometimes, the amount of almost freaky control Sasuke had over her jutsu really impressed Naruto. Sure, he could probably do the same, but it'd require seals. Of course, HIS throne would be cooler. Orange and sculpted with some cool symbols. Like ramen bowls, or naked Anko or Tsunade.
"...heeeey, that's the thought!" The mad scientist muttered, leering. "Tsunade'd be better tho. All that glorious boob flesh..."
Sasuke blinked, her eyebrow slowly rising up.
"A Tsunade-chair." Naruto's grin widened and he waggled his eyebrows comically, his hands lighting up with sparks as he drew a rough form in the air with his fingers, leaving up a hovering sketch.
Sasuke-chan observed the image for a moment, before frowning.
"I don't know if to be turned on by the idea or if to be insulted I'm not included." She pondered.
"Bah!" Naruto rolled his eyes. "It is all about exclusiveness, bitch." He said sagely. "See, a man needs to have a DREAM!" Naruto's eyes sparked as he raised his hand, pointing at the moon. "No matter how unattainable, man needs to dream, to reach, to SOAR towards the UNCONQUERED! Towards the moon and stars! That is what the man IS!"
"And what has that got to do with anything?" The kunoichi asked curiously.
"Oh, that's simple." Naruto said matter-of-factly. "That chair would be a symbol of a goal. Do you know how fucking hard is to convince Tsunade for even a bit of petting?"
Sasuke blinked, before quirking an eyebrow.
"Ah. A monument!" She punched her open hand with a fist. "Naruto, you sometimes show glimpses of artistic inclination in that barbaric chaos you call a soul."
"I'll have you know science is as much art as anything." He sniffed. "So there!"
"Your science, maybe." She smirked, earning a growl and a glare. "Down, boy." She patted his head. "And stop fiddling with that armor, for god's sake." The kunoichi slapped his hands away, deftly snapping on the pauldrons and clasping them securely. "Why won't you make any Kage Bunshin to help you with that I have no idea, dead last." She murmured, stretching her hand without looking and intercepting Naruto's chakra threads, 'drawing' another piece of armor towards them.
"I can't. Those fellas," he nodded towards the stone, bone-white samurai unit kneeling by the entrance to the temple. "will go berserk if I do. Bishamon's matrix is really damn strange. It's a mix of Onmyoujutsu shikigami pattern and kugutsu, with some bunshin outline to hold it together. It is, like, held by a roll of chakra duct tape. Too much feedback and poof!" He snapped his fingers.
"Then what about - stop moving, damn you!" She slapped his hand away, earning herself a pout. "What about that Kage Bunshin you left with Hana?"
"Well that's a different story. He won't dissipate. I just hope you reinforced yours." He shrugged.
"What did I tell you about moving?" The Uchiha glared at her partner and Naruto shrunk a little. It was ironic how much scarier Sasuke's glare was as a woman. He once spent a whole week trying to figure it out, only to receive an infuriating, self satisfied smirk and 'it is a secret' from the bastard.
Though it was around that time that Sasuke started to hang around Suzume, so there might be some connection. Sasuke gained a whole new level of disturbing after those repeats. Worse, Naruto had no idea about that - he was off gallivanting around learning Onmyoujutsu and digging a lot of old ruins, earning himself a 'Ruin Buster' title in the process.
So yeah, he was curious, and sometimes those old security seals and devices were a wee bit harder than he anticipated. That wasn't a reason to call him a 'Ruin Buster' though! He was a respected archaeologist, a real scientist! He had titles from three different universities goddamit! Well, he earned them once anyway, so it counted.
When he returned.. Sasuke was... well... Naruto preferred not to remember. He felt like an idiot, and Sasuke pulled it on him on three consecutive occasions before he caught on. And at one time the bastard didn't even use any henge, just some esoteric jutsu to change her smell so that his nose didn't pick up. Well, not until... after. It was one seriously, seriously odd repeat.
'Not without its pleasures, tho.' His lips twitched as Sasuke quirked an eyebrow, stopping her ministrations around his armor for a moment.
"Nothing." He said innocently.
"I could point out how ineptly you just lied by thirteen different factors, you know." She said with amusement, and Naruto blanched a little as she clasped his belt on with a smirk, her hand lingering around the clasp far longer than it was necessary.
"...never mind." He said with a weak chuckle.
"Good man." She grinned,
"I so hate when you do that." The blond exhaled, shuddering a bit.
"I know."
"Of course you do." The blond rolled his eyes, for once not bothering with the old game of quips and come backs. "You're really having fun, aren't you?"
"I can't help it." Sasuke shrugged, a faint smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she slid his hands in the vambraces. "Coral... this place affects me a lot." She said thoughtfully.
"Silk and satin sheets, eh?" Naruto said with understanding.
"Yes." Sasuke hesitated for a moment, frowning. "There is the... heat in the air. It is always warm here, people wear less, and there is a slightly desperate undercurrent of... letting go." She murmured. "Come as you aren't.. or rather as you would wish to be. No obligations, just have fun and relax."
"That's Coral, all right." The mad scientist smiled. "You know, if I ever wanted to live somewhere for any longer period of time? It'd be either here, or in Snow. Ruins on the thousands of uncharted islands, lost treasures of the pirate princes, strongholds of bandit kings and monasteries lost to time... and then summer wine as you return, silk sheets and opulence after roughing it for weeks..."
"Cold wine, warm women and sex on the beach." Sasuke smiled faintly. "Poker until dawn and exotic dancers in the evenings. A skirmish to make sure the blood's red still and gold thrown to courtesans treated like princesses. Exotic food stalls and music with a scent of incense, honey and spice permeating all around it..." She trailed off, shaking her head with a soft chuckle. "And who is the romantic here, hmm?" She gave him the gloves.
"Heh. I guess you're right." Naruto nodded, tugging them on and flexing his fingers. "Nice. Soft and supple, but with armor plates over them. Should hold just enough."
"Now... for the final step." Sasuke's eyes glinted with amusement as the kunoichi drew her arms out, the cloak coming alive in her hands like a piece of shadow given flesh, before circling Naruto, who closed his eyes briefly so that the mantle settled over his shoulders without any fuss. "Hmm... I have to say it looks much better than your orange monstrosities you call lab coats." She said finally after inspecting the blond for a long moment. "Still a bit ridiculous, though."
"Like their baggy, red-cloud patterned cloaks aren't." Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Ah, yes. That." Sasuke said sourly. "No sense of style those guys. If they are villains, they could at least dress the part. There is no crime in looking good, instead of mildly ridiculous. Not to mention those hats with those strips hanging and all... UGH!" The Uchiha shuddered. "They butcher the good name of the dramatic use of kasa everywhere."
"Uchiha Sasuke - protecting the dramatic use of clothes for appropriate situations everywhere." Naruto grinned.
"Says the man who is a ninja wearing orange lab coats for stealth missions and using fuuton ninjutsu to make them sway right." Sasuke deadpanned.
"Hey now, that's cool!" Naruto protested. "There is nothing cooler than a nice bit of orange cloak fluttering behind you when you make an entrance!"
"Do you yell 'dynamic entry' while wearing a spandex suit too?" Sasuke smirked, causing the boy to chuckle and rub his neck. "...wait." The Uchiha blinked. "For real?"
"...well, once or twice." he admitted. "I just wanted to know how it feels, yanno?"
Sasuke gave Naruto a long, blank look, before smiling sweetly. And that was more disturbing than most of the stuff the blond had seen in his long, long life.
"Naruto?" The cutesy smile became even more of a diabetic-killing one if that was possible. "If you do that, I will make sure your taste buds will never - EVER - be able to taste ramen again."
Naruto blanched.
"It is madness!" He protested.
"Madness?" She poked him in the chest, causing the blond to take a step backwards. "It is Sasuke-chan."
Naruto blinked.
"...there is a difference?"
"Hey, Itachi-san... how long are we gonna to do that?" Kisame ripped into his fried fish absently, Samehada on his arm swaying lightly. "Not that I don't enjoy the festival, mind you, but we're here for a reason, right?"
"As long as we need to." Itachi said calmly, coffee-flavored pocky crunching under his teeth in a pleasant, almost dreamy way. It was so hard to find coffee flavor, so he was going to enjoy it while he could.
"You are certainly confident in those guys' abilities." the Mist nukenin murmured, lazily observing the flow of people around them - the festival was in full swing and despite the late hour it didn't seem to diminish people's enthusiasm one bit. On the other hand it was Coral, so it was to be expected. "I don't know, Itachi-san... This place is like a boiling cauldron. Finding us, even if we ain't hiding..." He trailed off, noticing that Itachi stopped eating his pocky and simply stared ahead.
He followed the Uchiha's gaze, only to blink.
It was a woman - a lithe, dark haired young woman, clad in simple black gi and hakama combination with long white haori that reached her knees. From the looks of it she also wore a sword - some sort of kodachi or shoto, if Kisame guessed right. Her posture was straight, her step light and her bearing that of a trained ninja.
She was also little over ten inches tall.
"Hoshigaki Kisame." She gave him a sharp look and a nod. "Uchiha Itachi." Her voice was, like her bearing, no-nonsense and disciplined. If she was a normal shinobi, Kisame'd say she's some sort of well-trained ANBU operative. But then ANBU didn't come in the ten inches tall variety.
"That's us." Itachi put down his pocky, his face calm as ever.
"I was sent to guide you on my master's orders. Follow."
"...the hell?" The swordsman muttered.
"Is your hearing deficient, shinobi?" The tiny female said, looking at him blankly.
"Hey now, shrimp..." Kisame frowned. "I have no idea what you're on, but-" he paused as he saw Itachi calmly gathering his coat and paying for their meal. "Are you kidding me?" He said incredulously.
"It seems our guide is here." Itachi said simply, turning to the tiny samurai/ninja/whatever thing. "We will follow."
The tiny female simply turned on her heel and Kisame's eyebrow rose slowly as she seemed to blur, appearing on their table a moment later.
"...did she just-?" he asked with disbelief. "Itachi-san, did you-?"
"Yes." Itachi looked at their strange guide, his sharingan spinning slowly.
"Huh." The shark-faced man eyed the tiny woman for a moment, before shrugging and grabbing Samehada. "Lead on, I guess."
"So, this is it?" Naruto inspected the chamber curiously. Some Fuuton, Suiton and Doton jutsu and the hall looked almost like new, save for some minor disrepairs here and there. Sasuke-chan shamelessly 'borrowed' his services for some, but the finishing touches were all Sasuke, down to the cherry blossoms swirling in the air - authentic, not genjutsu, and all it took was grabbing a shitload of them from the nearby trees with almost absurd amount of focus and chakra. Sasuke was a stickler for details like that.
"Yes." Sasuke-chan nodded. "More than enough."
Naruto quirked an eyebrow curiously, staring at the setup for a moment, before shrugging.
"If you say so." He stretched, flexing his hands a few times so he got used to the armor a bit. It was a shinobi-type, true, but it still restricted a bit. He liked to move a lot in a fight.
Finally, he grabbed his Raijin inspecting the charge in it, leaving the blade dormant and unlit. His own Raiton affinity was crap and he'd rather not waste Sasuke's. Imprints were a bitch to re-focus and he had a feeling he wouldn't get a second chance. The Raijin copy was straining as it was. Another attempt might just turn it into little more than fine dust.
'That's the problem with chakra weapons. Screw up in the making, and it seems to work just fine. Screw up during usage, and it blows into your face.' Naruto grimaced. 'Well, at least it works right now and should for at least few more hours. I think.'
Because facing Kisame without the sword would really, really suck. He was a chakra engine, true, but that sword of his was a fucking menace. He had never seen anything that could drain chakra so aggressively in his life. Naruto still didn't quite know how Kisame came into its possession or how the sword was even made either. He was an excellent artificer without a doubt - hell, he could make a copy of freaking Raijin no ken in six hours! And he still wasn't sure how did Samehada's smith accomplish that, even after inspecting the weapon.
The damn thing was semi-sentient, aggressive and picked its wielders on its own. And it really didn't like Naruto for some reason. Though to be fair, his own creations seemed to utterly hate Samehada as well.
He only hoped that this time it would give him an edge. In some ways Kisame was a more difficult opponent than Itachi. While less sophisticated, the Kiri nin was also incredibly powerful and liked to use that power. Fighting him was like fighting a living flood - you had to go for power and pray you didn't drown.
Of course, he knew plenty of Kisame's weaknessess - after all he fought the shark nin quite a few times in the past - but the majority of them he simply couldn't exploit. He couldn't speed the large man to death since his body wasn't up to it. Straight ninjutsu was useless since Samehada would eat it. Simply overpowering him was out since Kisame was powerful enough to both take it and respond in kind. Besides, seeing as he would fry himself if he went for that level of Kyuubi's power that was a non-option.
He endured Sasuke's tender love and care once or twice and it was once or twice too many. While the Uchiha was a very good medic nin, the bastard was also rather disturbing and he wasn't going to get a repeat of 'Uchiha Hospital' any time soon. No way in HELL. It didn't matter how hot the nurse uniform looked on Sasuke-chan. Just... no.
So that left cheating like crazy. He lacked a lot from his bag of tricks, but he had chosen the battlefield and prepared a thing or two that were going to give the former Kiri ninja a nasty surprise. If he kept Kisame off balance long enough, he could win. Getting him off balance, though, was going to be a bitch and involve property damage galore and more than a bit of overkill.
"My type of battle." Naruto grinned, clipping Raijin to his belt and turned to Sasuke. "How much time to you need?"
"Time isn't really that important. I just need him alone." The raven-haired beauty said, straightening the loose yukata, giving it a critical look before tugging it a tiny bit more disheveled than it was before. "I am not going to fight him up front. That's idiotic - he'd squash me like a bug as I am right now."
"Genjutsu, huh?" Naruto scratched his chin. "He'll be burning chakra breaking the illusions like crazy. What if he pulls Tsukuyomi on you?"
"I am counting on it, actually." Sasuke shrugged. "Itachi's problem is that he puts too much faith in his sharingan's genjutsu ability - he never really learned the deeper aspects of the art and lets the sharingan work for him. So when he gets frustrated..."
"Tsukuyomi." Naruto shook his head. "I almost feel sorry for him."
"I don't." Sasuke's sharingan spun for a moment, before dying into nothingness, leaving only onyx eyes behind, even as the rest of Sasuke's silhouette broke into cherry blossoms, fading with a gust of wind, before swirling around the blond "Let's get wild, Naruto." The wind whispered, echoing through the hall.
The blond smirked, pulling out a full-face rebreather mask and fastening it on his face.
A moment later, a soft hissing sound filled the chamber.
"This is where the fun begins."
The trek was unexpectedly long, though Kisame had to admit he was rather surprised by their strange guide. The shrimp wasn't just keeping up with them, but outpaced them at will without any sign of a strain. At first he thought she was some kind of puppet - god knew Sasori made some strange stuff - but there was no sign of anyone controlling her, and Samehada could feel the tiny ninja girl's chakra. She might have been a summon, but he had never heard of any summon like that. Though he'd be the first to admit it wasn't exactly his area of expertise.
'Live and learn.' Kisame thought, watching as the small kunoichi effortlessly jumped around the mountain path, before blurring and stopping on a tree quite a distance ahead.
He was honestly surprised that path was even there - they probably wouldn't be able to find it without some serious scouting, so a guide had proven to be a blessing. Although it wasn't far from the city at all it was covered in growth and masked by trees, until one hit a wide path made of stone. It was obviously well made, standing against time even now, if quite a bit overgrown with grass.
"It is a temple." Kisame noticed with a bit of surprise.
Itachi nodded without a word, his sharingan registering the surroundings as they moved. The complex was quite big - obviously someone spent a small fortune setting this place up, but right now it was a ruin. A majestic ruin, but a ruin none the less.
Suddenly, their little guide stopped, coming to rest atop a torii gate, looking down on the two nukenin with her calm face.
"Welcome to the Gireihei Jinja." She said, and Kisame frowned, before spitting a curse as a large slap off the corner of the temple's roof seemed to just slide, smashing in between him and Itachi.
The Uchiha genius didn't even blink, simply side stepping the block and ducking under the shower of splinters, while Kisame simply let them bounce off harmlessly off his sword.
"Now that ain't very hospitable." The Kiri nukenin cracked his neck. "Throwing rocks at guests? Damn rude, isn't it Itachi-san?"
A soft hiss resounded through the courtyard, and Kisame frowned. There was something familiar about it, something-
Another hiss, this one softer, before changing to the slightly louder one and Kisame's eyebrows rose a bit as a dark figure stepped out of the shadows into the moonlit yard.
"Impressive." The cloaked man murmured, his voice reverberating through the rebreather. "Most impressive."
"So that why that hissing was so familiar." Kisame smirked, eying the large, full-scale rebreather hiding man's face. "Haven't seen one of those since I left Kiri. Brings back memories."
The figure said nothing, only rising his hand, stretching it slightly upwards, and Kisame's eyes widened as he jumped back just before another sizable piece of the temple's roof crashed where he just stood.
"I would advise you to keep your mind on here..." The stranger clenched his hand, and Kisame cursed, drawing Samehada just in time to block a large chunk of the masonry that struck at him. "and now."
"Hoo..." The large nukenin breathed, eying the torn bandages over his sword. "Plenty of force... you've got some nice tricks, don't you?" He eyed the sizable obstacle between himself and his partner as well as - which he noticed at the same time - between the both of them and entrance to the temple proper. "Well now... seems like someone is playing the guardian dog, Itachi-san."
The Uchiha simply nodded, looking up at the torii, face as calm as always.
Their guide said nothing, vanishing only to reappear by the doors of the complex a few moments later and entering.
"I'm gonna take care of this joker, Itachi." Kisame smirked, ripping the bandages of Samehada. "You go on ahead. I'll be by in a-"
A nodachi fell down, and Kisame blinked, blocking it.
'...what the-!' he thought with surprise. 'But there was no one there, no chakra no-'
His eyes widened as he looked upon his assailant - a lifeless, empty visage of a statue, moving against any logic.
"Well, well, well..." He murmured, a grin appearing on his face. "And here I thought this was going to be boring." He chuckled. "Go on, Itachi-san. I'm going to have a bit of fun with that fellow here. Do what you have to."
"Don't tear the place apart." Itachi said calmly turning on his heel.
Kisame just snorted, watching him go away before ducking under the statue's strong, but slow attack and slamming the Samehada into another one, cracking its arm.
"Those toy soldiers of yours are a bit on the wimpy side." He sneered. "Don't you have something better?"
For a moment the cloaked man said nothing, though Kisame had a strange feeling that he was smiling.
"As you wish." He said with amusement, raising his arm, before pointing at Kisame.
The mist nukenin raised an eyebrow as a loud groan of stone resounded through the clearing, the ground shaking before the shadows around him came alive, statue after statue stepping into the yard, drawing their stone weaponry with an ominous crackle of stone.
"Ah." Kisame raised his sword, eying a small army of solid rock silhouettes with a grin. "Now that is a bit better."
His steps, contrary to what he expected, didn't echo in the corridor. If anything, they seemed to fall into soft shadows that flickered occasionally with glimpses of white as his small guide strode forward. If he was anyone else he'd wonder how in the world did the whole ten inches of a strange woman was capable of keeping the pace. But he was Uchiha Itachi, so he simply followed, taking calm note of it as he did of a soft scent of cherry blossoms in the air and the occasional bit of faint pink under his feet that increased in frequency as he followed his guide.
The sharingan spun slowly, almost at concert with each step Itachi took, registering each shadow, calculating each trajectory. he didn't even take conscious notice of it - Konoha ANBU training and his own obsessive desire to test his capacity when he was one of the Corps took care of that. It was deep in his bones, impossible to get out. He supposed his mind would still calculate, plan and categorize when he was bleeding to death in some ditch somewhere as well. It didn't bother him. Not much did, to tell the truth.
Of course, things that did bother him he tended to obsess over, but then that was the charm of Uchiha blood, he supposed. He sometimes wondered if predisposition towards mania was bred into the Uchiha line, or if it was a side-effect of dabbling in things man shouldn't one time too many in their ancient past. Though he supposed that the tendency towards obsession must have been there before to prompt such experiments in the first place, so it was a purely academic question after all. Still a bit amusing, though.
It was always good to keep your mind occupied. Focus was a magnificent weapon, but it was a double-edged sword and a trap for a mind. He understood it late, but not too late to do anything. If his nukenin career taught him anything, it was that it was never too late to adopt a new approach. Flexibility was far better than rigid power.
His sharingan faithfully registering everything, Itachi stopped at the exact same moment his guide did.
The door was obviously old, though still usable and Itachi looked on with a bit of interest as the tiny (apparition? summon? He honestly had no idea) approached the structure, pushing on the wings open without even bothering to stop. The strength the tiny one possessed was less interesting than the fact the doors opened with energy, but just enough force to slow down before they hit the wall with a clatter, instead simply settling in with a soft groan and whisper as the bit of a breeze fell through, playfully spinning a small cloud of petals rising off the floor, before falling back down.
The room was old, if well kept. the window to the side lacked glass and was wide open, letting in a slivery streak of the moonlight. A single, soft sound resounded, a wind chime in the window swaying, almost invisible in the silver light. The Uchiha quirked an eyebrow slightly as he saw the tiny kunoichi fell onto her knee, head lowered to the floor in submission, knuckles touching the floor respectfully a few steps away from a large, throne-like chair made out of stone.
The breeze picked up, the chime resounding once again, the silvery tubes glinting and reflecting a bit of moonlight. Itachi blinked.
Was it his imagination or-?
A soft scrape of paper was unexpectedly loud, coupled with a breezy whisper of the sakura petals chased by the wind that rubbed over the throne, before falling softly onto a long, billowy sleeve of dark red yukata draped loosely over a smooth-skinned, pale form.
Her hair was what drew his eyes almost at once - straight and dark, it flowed down, almost indecently long and slightly disheveled yet neat at the same time, spilling all over behind the woman and almost touching the floor. She looked both older and younger than Itachi expected - if he had to judge, he'd put her age in mid-to late twenties, but there was something about her that made it almost impossible to judge.
The face was smooth, very attractive and without blemishes or creases of any kind, but while undeniably beautiful, wasn't what he expected either. He imagined a classical beauty, yes, but this was no yamato nadeshiko. Her features had a bit of an edge to them, silky and flowing, but predatory as well.
Then she frowned slightly, putting her finger to the crimson lips in a thoughtful manner, and the sharpness seemed to fled, leaving just softness and warmth as she seemed to murmur something to herself. Or rather reading, since she had a small, thin book in her hand with uniformly featureless cover. What it was, Itachi couldn't tell from this angle, but she obviously paid a great deal of attention to it, at one point smiling softly and nodding with satisfaction, before turning the page with a soft whisper of paper once again.
The little kunoichi knelt patiently as if made from stone and showed no sign of discomfort, unmoving and in the same position she was since they entered.
Itachi said nothing, simply observing the situation. He was in no hurry - Kisame was having fun after all and would draw it out as much as possible. Sometimes patience was all one needed.
The beauty blinked, opening her mouth and murmuring something he couldn't quite catch, nodding to herself slowly, her hand waving slightly in a 'come hither' gesture. Itachi quirked an eyebrow slightly as the tiny kunoichi vanished from her crouch, appearing on the throne just before the half-lying woman, the head bowed even lower.
The woman raised her eyes from the book, raising an eyebrow with amusement, before smiling softly at the small female, using one finger to raise her head.
"Hello, little bee." She said, her voice smooth and warm, causing the small kunoichi to almost shudder with obvious pleasure.
"Mistress." The tiny woman murmured, a slight blush on her features.
"Always so tense..." The pale lady laughed softly. "Relax. You are the one who bites here, yes?"
The small kunoichi was rigid, but it was obvious a small touch would be enough to turn her into a pile of blissful goo.
"Hmm... you must be tired. Coming out so quickly..." The beauty said thoughtfully.
"...I am still... capable of serving..." The 'little bee' murmured.
"Now now. Do know your limits." The pale lady opened her palm. "Sleep now, little bee."
The tiny kunoichi nodded and Itachi's eyebrow rose as the lithe, doll-like figurine seemed to blur, before fading as an outline with vague butterfly-like shape seemed to appear in the woman's cleavage.
"Stubborn, stubborn little bee..." She murmured with a smile, touching the tattoo gently. "Sleep, little one."
Then, as if nothing has happened, the woman took up her book, shifting a little so she was more comfortable.
Itachi was patient, but even his patience was not limitless. He came here for a reason, after all - not to play a waiting game with her.
"Greetings." He said, looking at the pale woman who said nothing, obviously absorbed in her book.
The silence reigned for a long moment, interrupted only by the soft scrape of paper.
"I am Uchiha Itachi." Itachi said, nonplussed by the woman's behavior.
"No you aren't." The woman said absently, not looking away from her book.
"You are neither 'Uchiha' nor 'Itachi'." She murmured distractedly. "And most certainly not 'Uchiha Itachi', either 'a' or 'the'..." The woman paused. "If something Uchiha Itachi even rates 'the', but let's not go that far, hmm?"
Itachi looked at her for a moment. This... was honestly a little bit strange.
"I came here-"
"No, you didn't." The woman interrupted him, still not looking up form her book. "You were summoned, and then you followed. That is quite a bit of difference, don't you think?"
Itachi frowned slightly. Technically, the woman was right, but that really wasn't important here.
"I have questions."
"Of course you do." The raven-haired beauty deadpanned, finally looking up from her book. "But before you state them, do allow one of mine, if you would be so kind?"
The nukenin raised an eyebrow.
"Tell me, the or a not-Uchiha not-Itachi..." She leaned forward, chin propped on her palm. "just why should I care?"
Itachi blinked.
Samehada swung, less like a sword and more like a giant bat, smashing through the two of the statues and Kisame's grin widened a little bit even as he ducked over a large chunk of masonry, before using Samehada to push himself back and jump off the halfway ruined wall that crumbled a second later.
His opponent was ridiculous. He didn't see fit to move from his position and all he did was gesturing and showering Kisame with rocks of various sizes, while those weirdass statues of his continued to assault the swordsman from the every possible angle. It was far from the sophisticated, rapid pace of the usual shinobi combat - it was coarse, rough, destructive and about as subtle as that piece of wall he just had to side-step before it smeared him over the courtyard.
Kisame loved it.
He wasn't stupid - no one who reached a rank of jounin could afford to be as tactical and strategic acumen were a must for the position, but Kisame didn't like to think overmuch in fight. It got in way of enjoying it to the fullest, so he just preferred to forgo any fancy strategies and intricate maneuvers for guts, instinct and sheer power. Not to say clumsy or aimless power - he was a master swordsman and prided himself on his craft. But in situations like these...
About the only thing better in the moment would be if the guy started swinging some kind of blade around and could give him a challenge.
The Samehada howled through the air ominously, taking a head off of one of the statues, causing it to stumble, and then renew its attack, and Kisame's small grin widened that bit more. Opponents whom you could smash into pieces and then watch get up? En masse at that? Hell yeah!
'And this is why I really took Itachi's offer.' He thought with a chuckle, spinning the Samehada over his head before brining it down in a smash, turning the stone warrior attacking him into gravel. 'Screw the money - this is where it is at!'
The gravel spun, the armored man slashing his hands upwards, before bringing them down and Kisame blinked, before bringing his sword up, smashing and ripping through the pieces of the roof of the smaller, halfway ruined part of the temple complex they were fighting in.
'Gotta admit it, that guy might be a one-trick pony but it is a good trick.' The nukenin admitted, coughing and waving away the cloud of plaster and debris that rose, obscuring his vision, jumping away to get clear only for his eyes to widen as the paper whispered all around him.
"...well, fuck." he deadpanned.
The explosive notes went off, lighting up the courtyard like miniature sun for a moment, the dust cloud expanding, the pillars smashed away by the sheer power as Naruto chuckled.
If explosives didn't solve your problems you weren't using enough of them.
He tugged on his glove tighter with satisfaction, watching as the dust cloud settled over the courtyard slowly, coating everything in a fine dust of blown up plaster and stone.
'And all that for a price of paper and some ink.' The jinchuuriki thought with satisfaction. 'Isn't science wonderful?'
Seriously, he'd make love to science if he could.
'...hmm, though technically, considering Keisei is a creation of science...' Naruto frowned thoughtfully, only to pause. '...son of a bitch...!' He thought with amused disbelief, before bringing his hand up and tugging on one of the myriad chakra strings he tied over to the blocks of stone and walls he fixed with Doton-jutsu before the confrontation, dragging up a large chunk of the stone floor to form a crude shield just as a large Suiryudan smashed into it, pushing wildly.
'God but he's tough!' Naruto gritted his teeth under the rebreather, feeling as, one after another, the strings broke under the onslaught. 'To think I have to start playing the higher cards early on in the game... I've been too lax. I forgot that fighting someone like him...' His hands tightened, chakra kicking into overdrive as every single thread in the vicinity came alive, connections to prepared blocks activating. 'finesse is totally wasted!'
The stones moved with a groan, before falling down like an avalanche just as a huge torrent of water rose, only to smash into the impromptu wall.
With the sort of pressure used, the hasty wall would just work to break the attack partially, leaving plenty of power behind it to smash into the blond, but he didn't spend time simply using Doton and Raijin to cut the multitude of stone pieces and affixing the chakra threads to them. Oh no. As always, there was a tiny surprise included and Naruto smiled under his breath as he cut power to the strings, letting them disintegrate and pushing his hands forward, the Fuuton jutsu howling as it was let loose.
The explosion wasn't like the first one. That one was guided and tailored. This? This was pure unrestrained and aimless power of the explosive tags affixed to the boulders.
Kisame blinked, before whistling lowly, swatting the shower of debris aimed at him by spinning the Samehada even as he eyed the tattered bit of mist that used to be a Suiton jutsu.
"Now that was quite a bit of power." He shook his head. "Kind of overkill, but I can't say it wasn't fun... though kinda stupid." he frowned. 'With that amount of power... did he blow himself up?'
"Kawarimi... no." Naruto's disembodied voice came from the mist. "You used shunshin no jutsu to escape the blast. You have been taught well."
"Ho ho... still alive?" Kisame raised an eyebrow in genuine interest. "Tough bastard, aren't you? Still..." The nukenin hefted the sword on his arm nonchalantly, observing the settling debris. "Seems like you blew up your own power base, huh?"
"So you noticed." Naruto walked out of the slowly receding mist calmly, dusting off the bits and pieces of gravel and dust that settled on his cloak.
"Not at once, but yeah." Kisame nodded, looking at the armored figure with interest. "Someone else might not but Samehada..." he patted the sword. "She eats chakra, and you hit 'er with quite a few of those boulders. Once I worked out why I got a bit of a tingle each time I smashed it... well, that was easy."
"Noticing it in such a short amount of time..." The blond stopped, observing Kisame with a calculating gaze from under his mask. "Most impressive."
"Not really." The Kiri nukenin shrugged. "But seems like you're out of stones to throw." The scaled sword hissed through the air, smashing the nearby stone samurai into gravel. "And you're out of soldiers. End of the line, chump." Kisame hefted the weapon over his shoulder. "Have to say it's been fun, but all good things have to come to an end and all that."
For a moment the silence, interrupted only a soft hissing of the breathing through the mask, reigned.
Then a low, snapping sound chased it away, followed by short, crackling burst and a low hum as the courtyard was bathed in the red glow.
"End of the line indeed." Naruto said smoothly as Kisame's eyes widened considerably, taking in the glowing chakra blade, humming in Naruto's hand. "As I said, you have been trained well..."
Kisame bit back a curse as the crimson blur struck, gouging through the wall he had been standing on with almost contemptous ease and shriek of pulverized stone.
Naruto paused, spinning, spinning the balde once, letting its hum resound through the air, before lunging at the Kiri nin, two potent weapon meeting half-way with a crackle.
"But you are not a master yet!"
"You have brought me here." Itachi's tone was his usual monotone, though while as calm as ever, there was a hint of puzzlement in it.
"So?" The porcelain skinned beauty raised an eyebrow.
"It indicates some interest." The nukenin looked at her calmly. "Either in my reason, the organization, or-"
A loud snort cut his sentence in half.
"Feh. You people...!" The beauty waved her hand dismissively. "You always think it is all about you."
Itachi's eyes widened a fraction as a whisper of silk came from behind him.
"Twice the pride..." Sasuke leaned over Itachi's shoulder from behind, her lips almost touching his ear. "double the fall, boy."
'...speed? But my sharingan didn't predict-!' He thought in astonishment, looking at the empty throne. 'Is it some kind of a counter, a high-speed technique? But there was no sound... Hiraishin? But there is no flash and that jutsu was lost and considered uncopyable so-'
"Of course." Itachi murmured. "If my sharingan didn't see you move then you didn't move."
The sharingan wheels spun, the air wavering a bit, before breaking with a sound of paper rustling on paper, revealing the porcelain-skinned beauty laying lazily on the large throne, book in hand.
"Your genjutsu is no doubt powerful." Itachi noticed, nodding his head once. "However if you are an Uchiha, you should know just how ineffective genjutsu is against those eyes."
For the first time in along while, Itachi could feel his blood simmer with excitement. He kept his sharingan activate constantly - to pull a genjutsu that fooled it, even for a brief while, without the Mangekyo...
The woman looked at him for a moment, before sighing.
"You are, indeed, Uchiha." She leaned back with a sigh, looking out the window at the full moon. "Looking but not seeing anything."
Itachi blinked as the woman on the throne seemed to simple shimmer and dissolve into moonlight.
Itachi's eyes widened a fraction.
'Another illusion? But-' He blinked, before nodding slowly.
"I see." He murmured thoughtfully, looking at the empty throne for along moment, before finally turning to the silhouette standing behind him. "To mistake the reflection of the moon for the real thing..." The corner of his lisp twitched a bit as the wheels of the sharingan spun faster, and the woman beside him fell apart into swirling petals that vanished a moment later. "I am not so immature as to bark at the reflection either." He turned to the throne, looking at the pale silhouette.
"Hoo..." Sasuke chuckled softly. "So you can learn, boya. Interesting. Still... tell me, why should I waste my time with you, hmm?" She quirked ane eyebrow curiously.
"Why indeed?" Itachi smiled faintly, before dissolving into cherry petals.
"It is simple because I am..." The Uchiha renegade sat himself gratefully on the window sill, leaning just enough to let the moon fall through. "interesting."
"Is that so." Sasuke's voice was like velvet, smooth and soft. And yet Itachi felt a bit unnerved at the strange, knowing note in it, though he couldn't for life of him understand why was it so unnerving yet soothing at the same time. He could swear there was something almost disturbingly... familiar. "We will have to see then, hmm?"
Itachi's eyebrows rose a tiny bit as the aroma of tea filled the room.
He frowned, turning his head a little, only to pause.
The bare chamber was gone. The stone floors, the walls... all of it.
Only the swirling petals remained, weaving in the air before they fell down softly on a nice, mahogany table.
A moment later muted sounds of music and faint echo of conversations coming from just beyond the shoji of what he recognized as either a rather opulent ryokan or a very nice brothel or inn, came through.
He turned his head back, only to see twin wheels of the sharingan mirroring his own, albeit slowly and lazily.
Itachi looked at her for a long moment.
"I see." He said finally.
"You don't, actually." Sasuke said flippantly, leaning back and extending her palm just as an elegantly clad serving girl with something that looked like a cross between a maid's yukata and a rather daring kunoichi gi gently laid a cup of sake on it.
Itachi's eyebrows rose a bit more when the girl bowed, excusing herself. Because for all her flawless skin, elegant beating and pretty face, as she turned, her form bathe din the moonlight, Itachi would swear the ebony hair were inky feathers.
He looked at the woman sitting in front of him, noticing the small, knowing smile on her lips
"Ah." He murmured, unable to stop a small smile of his own.
It seemed things just got interesting indeed.
'I am,' Naruto side-stepped a thrust, ducked under a cut and then pushed all of his body mass into a rising slash that managed to fry a bit of Kisame's cloak. 'a total idiot.'
Two swords met with a loud crackle, the Raijin in Naruto's palm vibrating viciously as it met Samehada's scaled edge. The scent of ozone fit his nostrils, but it was just air. The gargantuan sword pushed, and Naruto allowed the thrust to fuel his own jump.
Blocking made completely no sense - Kisame's raw physical power was incredible and Naruto, even burning chakra like crazy as he was, couldn't match it. There was a reason ninja trained their bodies, not just their chakra reserves. As it was right now...
The blond winced, feeling a spike of pain burning hot and raw through his muscles.
'...that was close.' He strafed, using a tree as a cover until it fell apart, smashed by Kisame's wild strike. 'Oh yeah. Lovely. Just lovely.' Naruto grumbled inwardly, slashing low, hoping to get Kisame's legs form under him, only to meet a sizable log of the tree he preciously hid under.
'Aw, shit.' The blond didn't know if to chuckle or wince. If there was anyone capable of using a freaking tree for a Kawarimi, Kisame was it. A second later the Samehada went high and Naruto let it slide along his blade, accepting and redirecting the force that would otherwise take his arm off into the nearest tree trunk. Had it been a normal sword and a normal swordsman, it would give him those precious seconds when the weapon cut through wood to swiftly gut the opponent like a fish. But Samehada was not a normal sword, and Kisame was not a normal swordsman by any means. So the trunk turned into a sawed-off runty log and splinters exploded outwards like a breath of a dying tree.
'...how was the forest supposed to slow him down and give me the advantage again?' Naruto grimaced under his rebreather.
They had long since left the ruined courtyard in favor of a small forest around the ruined shrine. Or rather Naruto did and Kisame followed. Naruto in search of advantage - Kisame with the same gleeful smirk he had since the beginning - if a fraction wider now.
Needless to say, this wasn't how it was supposed to be at all as far as the jinchuuriki was concerned.
'I know no plan survives the contact with the enemy, but this is fucking ridiculous!' Thought the blond, spinning in a vicious uppercut slash that hit a bit of cloth and some air instead of Kisame's madly grinning face, but Naruto didn't pay any attention, instead continuing the cut that sliced cleanly through a large tree.
Kisame's eyes widened as the blond didn't stop, instead entering in another seemingly wild spin, the ruby-bladed weapon little more than a circle of light around him.
'The Raijin used right doesn't just cut, shark-face!' Naruto thought smugly, before somersaulting and jumping back. 'I don't need to worry about being slowed down by what I cut either!'
The trees fell down with a groan straight at the nukenin, but Naruto didn't even bother looking, instead breaking into a run as his left hand made a continuous string of symbols and chakra burned through his muscles from the sheer overkill he had been putting his untrained body through. He was already fighting at least twice over his body's capability, patching the holes and deficiencies with constant, overpowered stream of chakra that long ago stopped being the gentle, pleasurable flow and instead turned into hot lava that was just getting hotter with each passing minute. His muscles were already screaming in protest, and he could feel the first vestiges of the familiar burn just at the edge of his perception. His time was running out.
No, this wasn't going well by any stretch of imagination.
'Stupid, stupid, stupid!' The blond chanted inwardly, his left hand making the last seal as he stopped rapidly, his heavy breath wheezing through the rebreather. 'A least it sounds somewhat menacingly cool like that, instead of pathetic.'
This was all going to hell in a hand basket pretty damn fast as far as he was concerned, however.
Originally it all seemed so simple. Kisame liked to enjoy the fight and was prone to drawing it out for the sake of fun - that was what Naruto was counting on. With so may strings he painstakingly tied into prepared blocks he was going to shower the large man with them and then use the rigged explosives to blow him up sky high before Kisame realized just what kind of danger he was in. A combination of Doton for rocks and Fuuton for power, a huge avalanche, enough explosive notes o blow up a small town and one mashed, grilled shark for everyone to enjoy in one swift stroke.
It was a magnificent plan. A great plan. A flawless plan!
Only Kisame somehow was more alert than he should have been and didn't cooperate at all.
'Well, to be honest I never fought him straight up without a fucking huge bag of tricks and the element of surprise on my side before.' The blond admitted with a sigh. 'Shit but that guy is annoying... no tricks to be exploited, no funky abilities with convenient holes, no real weaknesses... just a shitload of power that simply won't die.' He chuckled, seeing as the mist from Kirigakure no jutsu rose around the forest. 'I can sorta see why people find fighting me so annoying now.'
But the way they were now, there was no way Naruto could match the 'older' man and he knew it. The gap between their power and training was simply too large. No amount of cheating could help in this case, not unless he decided to open the floodgates on the chakra reserves he had and wreck his body stupid trying to match him blow-for-blow. And he wasn't quite that desperate yet, not to mention it'd blow the whole plan to hell.
'Not like I can win with him like that anyway.' the jinchuuriki cracked his neck, stretching a bit. The armor was decent, but during the fast-paced combat in a rough terrain it wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing in the world. Especially when one had a mantle on. 'Well, tatters of one.' The blond admitted, looking at the lower, ripped part of his previously magnificent cloak. Now, as the moisture was gathering, the dark cloth was slowly starting to look like black soggy dishrag instead of the impressive piece of properly villainous attire he imagined when he planned it all. 'Never rains... never rains, dammit!'
He let the milky touch of mist surround him as it finished filling the forest, shutting the Raijin off lest he drew Kisame's attention. He had no illusions about the trees stopping one of the Seven Swordsmen, especially Hoshigaki Kisame. If anything it was more surprise than anything that slowed him down.
'A plan, a plan.. I need some kind of a goddamn plan!' Naruto thought furiously, his mind spinning like a dynamo, juggling the possibilities and discarding them as quickly as they rose.
"Heh... I gotta admit, that was a nice trick!" Kisame's voice echoed from the mist, seemingly form every side. Naruto didn't budge, knowing the trick very well. It was an old favorite of the Mist nin, used to confuse and scare their victims. "Though I gotta say that cut extravaganza of yours... it kinda surprised me that you could move like that. Like you knew exactly what I am going to do. Strange, that."
Naruto froze.
'...how the hell did he-?'
"That's kind of impossible, because there are only a handful of men who know that particular fighting style. Much less know it well enough to make a counter in just the right moment, just like that."
'Aw hell.' Naruto winced.
"It made me think, see. I tried to cut you up a few times, and you timed it flawlessly, every single time. A good swordsman or not, that's a bit hard to believe." Kisame's voice was almost... cheerful, and he could just as well be talking about weather, but there was a strange note in it. "But there is also something really weird in it, in that movement of yours. That chaotic... yet flowing movement."
The blond bit his lip under the rebreather.
"That flowing, rapid ability to change the direction mid-step, to continuously attack seemingly without pattern but not losing the tempo, those spinning cuts... heh." The shark nin chuckled. "There was a style like that in the Kiri once, you know? One of the Founding Styles of Kiri, out of which the Seven Swordsmen draw their skills. The illusionary, flowing blade - the Nagare."
Naruto blinked.
'...huh?'
"At first you got the Sharingan like that lady friend of yours, but that's not it. You don't just predict - you know exactly what I do and why. That ain't something the Sharingan can do, I learned that by working with Itachi." he paused. "Which brings a question... just how can someone like you know one of the oldest and lost styles of Kiri?"
'...uh, what?' Naruto thought with surprise. 'What the fuck is 'Nagare'?'
"At first you were just some kind of a lackey, but... to know stuff like that..." Kisame paused for a long moment. "Itachi was right, I guess. You guys are the real deal, eh?"
The blond scratched his head. To be honest, aside from some purely utilitarian stuff he learned simply by making swords - he had to know how to use one to make improvements, after all - he never learned any particular sword style. Naruto wasn't Sasuke, who was collecting styles like other people collected stamps - he was a freeform guy more often than not, and he sure as hell didn't remember learning any Kiri sword style, much less anything like that.
'Huh. That's funny. I'd swear I-' The jinchuriki paused. '...what is that chakra-' His eyes widened as he felt chakra levels in the air rise rapidly, the mist thinning.
"You made me a bit curious, I gotta admit." The shark nin said, before grinning widely. "I've got some stuff to ask you, but right now I don't care about any of that shit!"
Naruto paled as he heard a distinctive whisper he heard a thousand times before - only usually he was the one watching form the safe distance when Keisei flooded the battlefield.
"Oh." Naruto's eyes widened enough to resemble saucers as a huge mass of water rose over the mist.
"So don't die on me yet - the fun's just starting!" Kisame grinned. "Let's go! Suiton: Dai Hisen!"
The wall of water rose above the forest, before smashing down like a titan's hammer, swallowing the forest and Naruto with it.
"...Tsunade-sama..." Shizune raised her hand to tug at her master's sleeve, only to pause.
She wasn't a little girl anymore. Though that place still brought so many memories...
The genius medic didn't say a word, her chin propped on her elbow as she sat by the bar in the corner, seemingly content to watch as people mingled around betting on roulette or participating in one of the countless card games taking place in the casino. The usual, gleeful look of a gambling addict willing to throw another small fortune down the drain with wild abandon was gone, instead replaced by a tired, thoughtful look, with the usually bright honey-brown eyes strangely subdued and melancholic.
From experience Shizune knew Tsunade wouldn't say a word, and simply watch people, her mood steadily worsening until she forced whatever band was playing to play a few songs - always the very same no matter what - and leave abruptly in the middle leaving behind a huge tip. A tip that would equal the two weeks of stay at the inn adjacent to the ambling complex. Shizune knew this because it was Tsunade's fixed routine repeating every year without fail.
She had seen her mentor come to Coral on that time every year no matter what - once, few years back, when the storms were so fierce no sailor was willing to risk their ship, Tsunade developed a ninjutsu to get here on time and almost killed herself from chakra drain by performing it.
When she was younger, she had no idea why her mentor did this, throwing a fuss when Tsunade left an equivalent of three months of her hard work as a tip, of all things, until Jiraiya had one drink too many on one of their meetings (purely coincidental, as the old pervert claimed, but strangely regular).
After that, the next time they came, Shizune sat by her mentor and simply watched her, knowing that after she went, Tsunade would drink herself into stupor imbibing the sheer amount of alcohol that would kill most people.
It wasn't healthy by any means - and not just because of alcohol. It wasn't healthy for Tsunade, it wasn't healthy for Shizune, and they both knew it. Tsunade wouldn't, couldn't back down, and Shizune didn't know how, burdened with guilt over the whole affair. Because however unhealthy and obsessive, she couldn't help but feel a small bit of sinful pride that her uncle's memory was still alive in Tsunade's mind. She hated herself for that, the small bit of sick pride quickly crushed by concern for her mentor and hate for herself.
If anything, she knew her uncle would be horrified to see what happened to the woman he loved so much, reduced to visiting the place of their dream honeymoon on the anniversary of his death. It was sick and it tore at her to see Tsunade like that, but there was nothing she could do but watch her beloved teacher spiral into the deeper melancholy as the hours passed.
Like every time. And like every time, there was nothing she could do.
Shizune bit her lip but said nothing, lowering her head a little.
There was absolutely nothing she could do.
To stop Tsunade-sama's path to-
"A game for a beautiful lady?"
Shizune blinked at the croupier, a rather nondescript blond man shuffling the deck.
"On the day of the festival no one should sit alone nursing their drink, hmm?" The man smiled - it was a strange, small smile. Not a well-practiced smile of a casino worker, coated in the veneer of professional politeness, but a genuine one. "Sitting by, alone and simply watching others play... that's not how a beautiful woman should spend her time in a place like this. Unless the lady is waiting for a gentleman... or another lady?" The croupier winked, and Shizune froze.
'...that guy... is he suicidal?' She thought incredulously. 'Tsunade-sama will-!
The blonde took a slow, long sip from her cup, looking forward blankly, before focusing on the croupier.
"Go away, boy." she said finally, her voice soft. "I... really don't feel like losing anything more today."
The younger medic simply sat, stiff and unable to even breath to deep lest she set her mentor off somehow, wishing she could develop spontaneous telepathy to shoo the persistent croupier away.
The man, however, didn't seem to notice her frantic looks, instead shuffling the deck with skillful hand and slapping it in front of Tsunade.
"Losing, winning..." He shrugged. "Unless you take a gamble, you will never know. Otherwise, there is no point, no?"
Shizune paled as Tsunade's hand clenched, the blonde focusing her eyes on the croupier.
In that moment, Shizune was certain that whoever the man was, he had no self-preservation instincts whatsoever. In all her life she had seen her mentor use that sort of stare only a few times. Her face wasn't contorted into any furious grimace - instead it was carefully blank. Her gaze, on the other hand, was almost akin to physical force and there was no sign of killer intent in the air whatsoever. And yet she had seen that stare reduce trained shinobi to nervous wrecks.
The croupier, though, seemed to be made of the sterner stuff, simply returning Tsunade's stare evenly, not budging an inch.
When her mentor's arm rose, Shizune was sure she would be treated to a gruesome view of the man being splattered all over the wall, but instead the blonde simply took the deck, looking at it with the same, distant eyes she had since coming here.
"Will you leave me alone after I play?" She asked finally.
The man nodded and Tsunade took her sake bottle, sitting by a mostly empty table, ignoring the curious looks form the other players.
"Deal, then." She said, taking a sip from her newly refilled cup, barely paying any attention to the cards she was given, and waving off a questioning glance form the croupier asking if she wished to exchange them.
The betting, if one might call it that, was short and brought to a grinding halt by Tsunade, who simply outbid everyone and forced a check.
"Two pairs." An elderly samurai put his cards down with a sigh.
"One pair." A young woman on Tsunade's side pouted, leaning back with a dismissive wave. "Seems like luck won't smile on me tonight. Is she really that jealous of my good looks?" The girl laughed shrilly, waving her overly cute pink fan to and fro, clearly imitating a noble woman she wasn't but desperately wanted to appear to be. "At this table that's no surprise, I guess." Shizune just threw her a mild glare and a warning look - Tsunade could sometimes be utterly unpredictable in those kinds of situations, and her mentor displayed a very vicious sense of humor when she felt people overstepped their bounds.
Fortunately the only thing Tsunade was interested in was her sake so Shizune just sighed with relief, ignoring the shrilly woman.
"Ha!" A young scruffy-looking man who obviously didn't believe in shaving took a drag off his cigarette, before exhaling a lungful of smoke and fanning his cards out on the table. "Read'em and weep! Full house!" he said gleefully, cracking his knuckles before reaching for the prize. "Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, it's been a pleasure to play with you all!" he chuckled, earning himself a glare from each of the players save for Tsunade, who simply shrugged and got up, giving the croupier a distant, blank look.
"I told you, didn't I?" She said simply. "I really don't feel like losing anymore. Buzz off." The blonde medic turned away form the table, walking back to the bar.
"Losing?" the croupier raised an eyebrow, unfolding the cards. "The last time I checked, royal flush was the perfect winning hand."
The blonde froze, her eyes widening, and she turned to the croupier slowly, her honey-brown eyes narrowing.
"...what did you just say?" Her voice was soft, but Shizune could feel the steel under that velvety exterior and felt her hair rising on the back of her head. This was so not going to end well. She knew it. She was sure of it. And she sure as hell wished she could just vanish right now because it wasn't going to be pretty.
"Royal flush." The croupier fanned out her cards for all to see. "Is the highest possible hand, no?"
The genius medic started at the cards dumbly, for along moment, not moving, save for her hands, which were shaking a little as she stared at the spread, noticing with a bit of morbid curiosity that the red king she was dealt was an image of a blonde daimyo that seemed to smile form the card rakishly, though not without kindness, laid just next to a queen that seemed to be a bored court lady with a pipe but a strange bit of mischievous light in her eyes, accompanied by a valet who seemed to look at everything with barely hidden amusement.
"...in this place... no less... in this place..." She murmured, her voice soft and wistful. 'Are you trying to tell me something... Dan?'
Her hand, shaking slightly, reached for the cards, only to pause as a low rumble went through the building.
Tsunade's eyes widened, and a moment later, the eastern wall exploded collapsing inwards, a cascade of water and debris smashing anything in its path and collapsing the ceiling straight at the blonde medic.
"...ouh...ouh...o-" Naruto had to admit that whining through that rebreather sounded really odd for some reason. "...fuck that... hurts."
It was a testament to the solid construction of his armor and his own hastily used Fuuton jutsu along with just plain inhuman durability that he wasn't a heap of broken bones, and was conscious to complain as he laid on a bed of wood, paper and cracked plaster that was a building sometime before.
'Well, at least I am not breathing dust - yay for the rebreather.' He thought dazedly, sitting up with a groan, absently checking his body for injuries.
'Thank god for diagnostic ninjutsu...' Naruto winced as a bit of wooden railing broke, falling on his back. Fortunately, it was a small one and it bounced off his armor harmlessly. 'Bruises, sprains, dents and one fracture... ho hum... not bad.' He sighed, laying back for a moment, feeling as his regenerative factor took care of some abrasions. Kisame wasn't here yet and it would be a moment before he arrived or found him, so he had time to take care of the injuries. Not completely, of course, but even a little bit was better than nothing.
The jinchuuriki peered over the ruble, blinking as his eyes met a large, straight piece of iron that could have skewered him through had he fallen just a tiny bit more to the left.
"...huh." The blond grinned. 'Seems like Lady Fortune still looks out for me, eh?" He clapped his hands three times. "I promise to do something nice for you the first proper chance I get, lovely lady."
After all, luck was like a woman - if you didn't appreciate her she just might leave you, and Naruto loved his luck too much to see her go. As Sasuke often reminded him, luck was the one thing he always had with him, even when things were down. In some way she was his oldest and dearest friend, so he showered her with compliments when he could, appreciated always and talked to her when he felt like it. Hey, worked with flowers, right? Not that he rated the good Lady at the level of flowers. Flowers were nice and stuff but Lady Luck was awesome beyond compare.
"Heh... so don't leave me now, girl. I have plenty of tricks left, eh?" He chuckled, rising from the rubble.
Naruto shook off the debris, his fingers snapping a quick fuuton ninjutsu to shake off the dust off of his cloak and armor. Who said all Fuuton was good for was cutting?
He briefly contemplated the pieces of his tattered cloak, before ripping it off his shoulders, throwing it away. That rag was just going to be a nuisance now.
The blond blinked.
"Hey, now that's a good idea. A useful one, though..." He snapped his fingers, a scroll appearing in his hand. Naruto unrolled it partially hastily drawing one additional circle, cursing under his breath at the twisting paper. It was going to be a rush job, but it wasn't like he had some kind of a lab around here. Kisame was still a fair distance off so...
The blond rolled the scroll, fingers flying through the familiar seals, before unrolling it with a flourish again, spinning the paper around as it grew in size, the modified seals flowing all over it and growing until they erased any trace of white, leaving behind inky black that flowed down his shoulders like a piece of night.
"Kuchiyose: Ryoura." Naruto grinned under his rebreather as the mantle whispered, settling around his shoulders, coiling and moving despite the lack of any breeze to allow it to do so. "How about a useful AND cool cloak, sharky?" The blond snickered under his breath, before tugging at the chakra string tied to his wrist. A second later, a crimson blaze erupted from the nearby pile of rubble, burning through it before jumping into Naruto's hand effortlessly.
"Here you are." The scientist murmured, frowning as he noticed the tell-tale cracks along the casing. The weapon was still functional, but it wouldn't be for much longer. Not enough to take on Samehada with any guarantee of victory anyway. 'Hell, that is sort of like me.' He winced, feeling a familiar jolt welling in his muscles. 'Fighting like I do right now I have no chance of taking him down.'
He pondered the situation for a moment, before cursing as he felt the familiar chakra swaggering in his field of perception. The damn shark wasn't even bothering to conceal his presence - he was all but challenging him to act!
'Out of time, out of trumps... dammit!' He growled. 'No choice, then. Sorry, Sasuke. This one... I don't think I can win as I am now. Time to play some jokers.'
The blond gripped the hilt tighter, before turning it around in a reverse grip.
'Sorry, Sasuke. But it is incomplete and... just for a short time.' Naruto thought, pulling out a small, rectangular piece of metal. 'So just for a short time, just for now... it should be okay.'
He stuck the ornate place to the bottom of the hilt, before pushing it in, watching as it broke the casing, sinking into the weapon. A moment later, the crimson blade winked out of existence in a shower of sparks.
For a long moment, the hilt was silent and dead in Naruto's palm, until a short burst of red lighting ran through it, casing the blond to wince, but smile almost as soon as it passed.
'Assimilation complete.' The cracks over the casing lit up with faint red glow. 'Chakra link open, limiter seals disengaged.'
The Raijin groaned, and Naruto opened his palm, the weapon on it shaking and vibrating slightly as the bone-white covering kept on cracking, releasing occasional spark.
The red glow erupted, the outer casing turning into nothing more than ash, leaving behind a thinner, black hilt crisscrossed with a net of cracks glowing with soft crimson, an occasional red spark dancing at the top.
"And this is what I'd like to call condition red." The jinchuuriki cracked his neck, straightening as Kisame's silhouette came in sight.
The large man was in no hurry nor alarmed - if anything he seemed relaxed, Samehada balanced on his shoulder, a grin on his face as he swaggered into the ruined building.
"Heh. Seems like I caused a bit of an avalanche." He took a look at the ruined casino, before shaking his head. "Well, you're alive anyway, so that's not a problem I guess. Gotta say you're a tough bastard." He looked at Naruto, his mad grin widening a fraction. "Good." The shark nin hefted Samehada from his shoulder. "Come on, light up that chakra blade of yours! Samehada is itching to get some dinner!"
'...shit. Not yet!' The blond thought with panic gripping his hilt "The only thing it is going to get is indigestion and third degree burns!"
"Quite the mouth on ya." Kisame chuckled. "But if you don't feel like attacking..." The gravel exploded from under the large man's feet as he launched himself forward. "DON'T MIND IF I DO!"
'Fucking maniac!' Naruto hissed, barely able to avoid the wild swing and side-step a powerful punch. 'And wielding this thing one-handed with that kind of speed... goddamn he's strong!'
Samehada's edge ripped through the wooden beam and its stone counterpart as if through butter, shredding each and barely slowing down, reading for another slash. But slowed down just enough.
Naruto slammed his fist to the ground, the spikes of the Doton jutsu almost impaling Kisame until the shark-nin's sword met them, almost comically slapping them back to the ground they rose from.
'...why did I leave Keisei at the inn again?'
"Oh come on!" Kisame rolled his eyes. "Without that sword of yours you ain't even a challenge! The hell you thinking, moron? Some shitty B-class jutsu?" he sneered. "Are you fucking KIDDING ME?! Give me some of that flowing blade technique so we can cut like real swordsmen! Sword against sword, skill against skill, power against power! Come on! Light her up!"
Naruto snorted, a riposte dying before it had a chance to fly as a powerful jolt shook his palm.
He paused, looking at the black surface.
"Light her up?" He grinned, looking at Kisame. "Heh. See... that sword... she's a bit on a lazy side." the jinchuuriki shrugged. "I can't really make her do what I want unless she wakes up all the way. However..." he griped the blade, smirking. "Now the condition red had been cleared and she's ready to make some noise." Naruto slammed the open palm of his free hand to the bottom of the hilt. "Watch and remember as you burn! Come forth RAIKA!"
The crimson sparks danced on the top of the hilt, before exploding forward, causing Kisame to bite back a curse and jump away as a large bolt of crimson lightning literally burned a line where he had been stranding, going forward with no restraint, bathing everything it didn't burn in the red glow.
A moment later the flash subsided to manageable level, and Kisame's eyes widened a fraction.
The thin, katana-sized 'blade' of light was gone - in its place was a long, wide blade of lightning, pulsing and crackling madly, easily as long as his Samehada, though shaped more like an stretched triangle.
"This is this girl's true power. The playtime..." Naruto channeled a bit more chakra, causing the lighting to dance all over the blade. "is over!"
The blue-skinned man stood there for a long moment, before hefting Samehada with a toothy grin.
"Over? The way I see it, this show just got to the good part!" he chuckled. "Come on, sparky! Let's cut ourselves nice and proper, then!"
Naruto didn't bother answering, instead just letting the sword in his hand dig into his chakra reserves, the blade lighting up and vibrating in his hand as it crackled madly.
The two swordsmen looked at each other, neither moving an inch. Naruto tensed, the sword in his hand glowing a tiny bit brighter as Samehada in Kisame's hands moved to an aggressive position.
For a moment, there was absolute silence, broken only by minute crackles of the crimson blade.
The gravel shifted.
The blades rose as one.
Both swordsmen paused, blinking as a tremor shook the ground beneath their feet, and then scrambled madly back as the pile of debris to the side exploded outward with incredible force. Then exploded again, showering pieces of debris and plaster like a cloud, interrupted in its grayish tint by a white and gold blur, that slowly gained focus as the debris settled.
Just as the debris was setting, one of the leftover beams previously holding the casino together, groaned finally breaking, and fell towards the woman, only to explode mid-way, turning into a shower of splinters before the last vestiges of the cloud finally dissipated.
"Shizune." Tsunade said softly. "Take them away." The blonde's voice didn't change one iota, but for some reason it suddenly became all the more terrifying to the younger kunoichi. "Right now, this place had become a battlefield. From this moment on I can't guarantee your safety."
"Tsunade-sama-!" Shizune protested, only to bite her lip and pale at the chilly, blank look her mentor gave her. The younger kunoichi bowed her head, but her mentor ignored her, already walking away towards the two swordsmen standing by the ruins. "...understood." She lowered her head once again, before turning to the evacuation of scared and confused civilians she managed to save at the last moment.
Tsunade didn't bother dusting off her jacket, simply shedding it as she walked and throwing it off to the side, allowing it to drift away on the wind towards the harbor.
"One of you made that avalanche... no, that waterfall, to smash that casino." Tsunade said evenly. Her voice was perfectly neutral, and there wasn't even a hint of the killer intent - in fact there wasn't even a hint of her presence as far as chakra was concerned at all. No leaking power, no pissing contest. Control. Refinement. Focus.
For some reason, it was all the more terrifying when one was faced with the pair of almost burning honey-brown eyes.
Naruto blinked, wasting no time to point at Kisame.
"He started it!" He said swiftly.
"I started it?" Kisame looked at the blond with disbelief. "YOU threw ROCKS at me!"
"Rocks, not freaking tsunamis!" Naruto snapped.
"Rocks that were bigger than me!" The nukenin protested. "You threw a whole stone Tori gate at me for god's sake! Do you know how much one of those weighs?!"
"Are you kidding me?" Naruto rolled his eyes. "That wave you used was taller than the goddamn temple! And you have the gall to complain about one little tori? Get real!"
"Well, if you didn't hide like some pansy-" Kisame paused , biting back a curse as the wall beside them exploded, showering all save Tsunade with debris.
"To be honest, if it is one or the other..." The genius medic retracted her fist, eyebrow twitching. "I really don't give a shit." For the first time, Tsunade's killer intent spiked, causing both Kisame and Naruto to tense as it washed over them like a sea of rage. "You bastards... my luck... royal flush... my fated luck... royal. flush." A torrent of chakra erupted from Tsunade, her eyes almost glowing with perfectly controlled, focused power, before exploding, causing the two swordsmen to curse, jumping back as the ground they were standing on became a fissure from a single, vicious stomp. "Royal. FLUSH!"
Naruto and Kisame looked at the fissure, then at each other.
"Huh. She's pissed." Kisame was the first to voice his opinion.
"No, really?" Naruto deadpanned.
"You..." If her eyes were glowing before, they were running white-hot now. "ruined my first-in-life Royal Flush." A bright blue aura erupted around the kunoichi's fists, a contrast to the deathly calm tone. "Prepare to die."
"So." The raven haired beauty swirled the sake gently in her saucer, looking into it as if divining the answers to any question. "Madara sent me his favorite lapdog. How... quaint."
If Itachi was insulted or amused by the moniker, no one could tell - the young Uchiha kept his infamous composure well.
"He is wary." The nukenin said simply, nodding slightly.
"Sending you here...?" The said, waving her hand in a dismissive gesture. "He's insulting, not wary. The far more interesting matter is to whom he is insulting." She leaned her elbow on a comfortable pillow that was just there, exactly where it needed to be, even if it wasn't there before.
Itachi's face remained impassive, the bit of silence on his part might have indicated some thought, however if it was about the fact he didn't notice the pillow appearing out of thin air, as it seemed to have always been there or about the nature of the question was hard to tell. For most, at least.
Sasuke could read her one-time brother with almost ridiculous ease born from decades of rather bloody obsession with utter destruction of the man. Only, to her bitter disappointment, to find less than a man in place of a larger than life epitome of evil she constructed in her mind and nowhere near the sense of accomplishment when her long quest ended with a squeak of a rat than a glorious fanfare of victory.
And she reprized it many, many a time to make sure. That old, hollow feeling of being cheated out of the conclusion of her obsession... oh, she knew it well.
Her hate wasn't spent, oh no. Nowadays, however, its direction and form were far different, honed in a way only experience could. She was older, wiser and far more at ease with herself. Almost disturbingly so, according to certain blond demon containers but it was Naruto's chagrin and Sasuke's amusement.
Though if one was to be honest, Sasuke was quite sure that Naruto's indignant exasperation was a classic case of protesting a wee bit too much. But then they had many of those little quirks over the years - they kept life... interesting.
Besides...
She smiled under her breath, a tinge of deeply rooted satisfaction almost palpable in her eyes. Reasons and sources of said satisfaction were better left unnamed as long as the doors were open and company was about. But then, the night was still young and Hana just might be mellow enough to drop her 'lady doth protest too much' routine.
But until then she was going to amuse herself and let that old, acidic viciousness bubble out and singe the other Uchiha where it hurt. That her one-time brother wasn't the focus of her hatred anymore didn't mean she wasn't going to enjoy breaking the supposedly grand monolith known as Uchiha Itachi for her satisfaction - one chip at a time. She might have been older, she might have been wiser - but in the end it only made her that much more vicious.
"Think whatever you wish." Itachi said dispassionately.
"Why, how gracious of you." she smiled mockingly, taking a sip of sake. "Be careful, boya. Someone might mistake you for a gentleman at this rate."
Itachi seemed to ignore the mocking tone completely, nodding once.
"My organization wishes to know of your intentions." He said calmly.
"Ah, that vaunted 'organization' of yours." Sasuke sighed. "Here I thought you were supposed to be interesting, and there you go and switch back to that boring routine. Shameless."
Itachi quirked an eyebrow slightly as he felt the air thicken with killer intent for a moment. It was brief, fleeting and lasted less than a second, but for a moment it felt like the air around them became washed out of color, save for the woman sitting in front of him.
How much of it was genjutsu and how much just pure anger Itachi couldn't discern, but whatever it was, it felt heavy, malicious and almost acidic.
Just as abruptly as it appeared it was gone, leaving behind a scent of cherries and grass, oddly enough, with faint smell of burning candles and lilting note of some song that seemed to form the background together with some hushed voices and whispers.
"To be honest, I have no interest in a bunch of blind led by a one-eyed shadow." She waved her hand dismissively.
The corners of Itachi's lips twitched a bit, a faint smile appearing on his face.
"They say that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." He said mildly.
"King?" She chuckled mockingly. "Then the realm he rules is poor indeed, yet so very fitting - filled with nothing but the blind and easily misled."
"Should I take it as an answer to my question?" The renegade asked, rising an eyebrow questioningly.
It was, to Sasuke's amusement, the single most expressive grimace Itachi made, even counting the faint smile form before. Itachi was weird that way. But then, so was she. That was precisely why she preferred to smile anyway.
"I don't know." A faint look of amusement grew predatory, the unnaturally long canines glinting in the candle light. "Should you?"
The other Uchiha looked for a long moment, before blinking once.
"I see." He said calmly, nodding and closing his eyes briefly. "Then there is no other way at this point." Despite the deadpan disappointment, there was a faintest trace of a pleased note in the man's voice. If she had to guess, she would even hazard as to why.
The shinobi's eyes opened, the glaring red veins, like cracks, overtaking the eye as the Mangekyo manifested, the table and the inner chamber of ryokan dissolving as a slab of rock rose form the murky depths of a small lake, the restraints snapping over the kunoichi's arms.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow slowly.
"My my, how kinky." She said with amsuement. "A bit simplistic, but at least you begin to show some personality."
"It is regrettable," a number of Itachi replicas chorused, all carrying the same, faint look of disappointment, "to use such methods, but I need the answers to my questions."
Sasuke smirked, ignoring the group of Itachi-clones drawing their swords completely.
"'My questions'?" She said. "Well, now we're going somewhere, aren't we, boy? But do you even know what 'your' questions are?"
"I am sorry but I have no time for games anymore." The katana held by the nearest clone rose, before sinking into flesh with almost surgical precision.
A strangled gasp left the woman's mouth.
"This is the example of Tsukuyomi's ultimate power, the world where time and space is completely at my control." Itachi looked on impassively. "You know of it, no doubt. There is no need for further-" The nukenin paused, interrupted by another gasp. Then another.
It took him a moment, to realize that it wasn't a gasp of pain, but a snicker. A snicker that turned into full blown, loud laughter.
"Complete control?" Sasuke's whole body was shaking as she kept on laughing madly. "'Ultimate power'?" She looked up with a sneer.
Itachi's could only stare as the blood seeping from the wound seemed to come alive, coating the weapon speared through the woman's abdomen. The illusionary clone didn't even have time to let go if it before the red and black substance swallowed him whole.
"You..." Itachi's eyes widened a fraction as the woman's voice came from under the dripping blood. With a wet squelch, the fluid coalesced, against all laws of physics, flowing and forming an undeniably feminine silhouette. "who is little more than a puppet eaten alive by his own strengths, who doesn't even know the deeper arcana of his art...!" the raven strands, still wet with blood, scattered around her, showering the water with droplets of red that started to dissolve, lending water their crimson hue.
"You dare to throw around such words like 'ultimate power'?" The fangs glinted, a long, languid hiss accompanying the opening eyes. "WHELP!" She snarled "Know your place!"
The stone the kunoichi was previouslu crucified to sank almost soundlessly, the ripples made by its passing reaching out, the clones of Itachi freezing in place, and opening their mouths in a soundless scream before twisting violently and dissolving into blood-red fluid as they fell apart.
"You think that Mangekyo of yours is so high and mighty?" Itachi took an unconscious step back, only to hit something solid. He wasn't given even enough time to check as the vines sprouted out - or through - the stone, binding his arms and legs as tightly as any shackles ever did, the thorns biting in greedily.
"You think that it allows you to fly so high above the reach of 'normal' shinobi?" She asked mockingly, sitting back without care, the pillow - the very same pillow he remembered form that illusionary inn - catching her. "'Ultimate power'. Feh." She extended her hand, a dark-haired, shapely servant with feather-like hair pouring sake to the saucer. "Seriously."
The familiar, cherry scent filled his nostrils, the dripping sound of water mingling with the song that seemed to scratch at the edges of his memory in an odd way.
"You see, while flying is nice, the best rice grows on the ground." She swirled her sake, looking into it thoughtfully. "And without good rice, you can't have good sake. You can't drink, unless your feet are on the ground."
"Indeed... it seems foolish in rertrospect." Itachi bowed his head slightly. "To match one Mangekyo's power against another was foolish in that regard."
"Mangekyo?" Sasuke snorted, leaning on her. "As if I needed something pathetic like that. Are you really striving so hard to be one of the citizens of that kingdom of the blind, boy?" She leaned back, lazily rising her saucer to have it refilled by the maid. "Well, I guess since you blind yourself willingly like that..."
The renegade blinked once.
The Tsukuyomi was the ultimate example of genjutsu. As far as he knew there was no way to beat it - unless one had Mangekyo, as Madara had proven. The speed and the complexity of the illusion ensured that there was no direct way of beating it other than with another sufficiently evolved Sharingan.
But then... there was only one Uchiha with a 'sufficiently evolved' Sharingan he met until now and he really had no comparison.
"...kingdom of the blind." He murmured, a thin smile appearing on his face as his eyes closed for a moment. "Fitting. But that means that..." the Sharingan in his eyes twisted, the familiar shape of Mangekyo spinning in the bloodshot eyes yet again. "I also have cards left to play."
The Mangekyo spun once, the illusionary world of Tsukuyomi sliding away like a curtain, revealing the moonlit chamber.
The woman said nothing, still sitting in the very same position as before.
"Fu fu fu..." The fangs glinted in a lazy smirk. "Do you really?"
Itachi blinked, before strangling a scream as his eyes started burning with pain, followed by his body.
"Illusions..." he struggled for breath, even as he fellt o his knee before the stone throne. "can't...!"
"Actually, they can but in your case, you were dead the moment you came here." The elegant hand reached and the overpowering smell of cherries hit Itachi again, mingling with soft tones of the strangely familiar song yet again. Itachi looked upwards at the smiling silhouette, with hair like raven's feathers pouring the alcohol to the kunoichi's saucer yet again. "Or even before."
Itachi's knees hit the carpet of cherry blossom petals even as understanding dawned.
The Uchiha renegade stared at the pale beauty for a long moment, before his lips twitched, a strangled gasp escaping his throat. It took Sasuke a moment to understand that the bizarre sound was, of all things, laughter.
The genius bowed his head once, a small smirk on his lips.
"I see." He murmured. "My thanks, my lady. I will darken your chamber no longer. But then..." the corners of his lips twitched. "I never did in the first place, did I?"
"Hmm... who would have thought... he can learn!" The kunoichi said with genuine amusement. "You are too stiff, boy. Unless you let the sword rest it will become dull and break."
"Ah." The other Uchiha nodded. "I see."
"Instead of seeing go and do something about it. Getting laid works wonders for one's stress threshold." The kunoichi let the saucer in her hands dissolve even as Itachi fell back on the cherry blossom carpet, the Sharingan in his eyes spinning slowly.
With the last bit of his strength, his eyes darted towards the woman on the throne, the Uchiha bloodlimit piercing through paper-thin layer of illusion.
The onyx eyes looked back at him unflinchingly as the crimson faded.
"...I see now." Itachi chuckled softly, the Sharingan dying as chakra finally ran out. "Forgive my... intrusion." He whispered as the poison finally finished its job.
The woman waved her hand lazily, the wind picking up, covering the corpse in pale pink, poisoned petals even as the pale skin receded to give way to the healthy, golden tan and the face softened, changing its inhumanly attractive, predatory features to softer, if just as attractive ones.
"Apology accepted." She murmured, leaning back slightly to look at the brightly shining moon, only to cough and lower her head immediately, the two tracks of red falling down rapidly, only to be stopped by a small white scarf which soon started to become dark red.
The kunoichi grimaced, looking at her stained fingers as the blood soaked through the scarf. "Hu hu... seems like that is... my limit." She muttered, feeling as the familiar, numb feeling overtook her senses. "Even when it was only... a simple reversal...?" Sasuke winced a bit as a spike of migraine hit her. "...tch!"
Step. Cut back.
Duck.
Again.
The opaque crimson blade whined in protest, clashing with Samehada, before digging into nearby wall just before it exploded, throwing them back.
'...so. A question of the... month!' Naruto somehow didn't lose his balance, instead using a sizable piece of wood that used to be a part of the ceiling several jutsu and two devastating punches ago to ride down over the rubble. His control sucked, but with enough power one could cheat as all get out. 'Did plaster and...'
He somersaulted off the wood, desperately cutting through a massive wood beam that was chucked at him from below. 'splinters become-' The blond spun, using the wood he was cutting to redirect his descent from a pile of unstable rubble to some nice, clean ground.
'became part of my die-' His eyes widened a fraction as he noticed the wall teetering on the edge of his supposed 'safe zone'. His sword dug into the ground with a shriek, slowing his descent as he landed, sliding further and further back, the armored gauntlet digging into the ground desperately.
'OhshiohshitohsSHIIIIII-!'
The gravel whispered as the energy was spent as the jinchuuriki came to a full stop.
The blue eyes looked cautiously up at the crumbling wall that was about to fall.
A wooden beam teetered on the edge... and with a groan slid back, the entire construction settled down.
Naruto let out a long, shuddering breath he didn't even realize he was holding. he was tough and normally one measly wall was just painful but it so happened that that one, measly wall was what stood between him and that nice, two story building falling right on top of his head. He liked his head where it was, preferably not as a red smear.
Besides, Sasuke would kill him if he screwed up! Or worse.
"...lady luck, you earned yourself a big, huge-" He paused, blinking as the wall groaned before exploding and showering him with splinters and plaster. Naruto looked up to see the undeniably pissed, immaculately clean (a minor miracle considering the amount of various debris being kicked around currently, but then he strongly suspected some Ancient Medic Nin Secret - it was just so like Tsunade to make a jutsu for vanity's sake alone) Tsunade walking - or rather stalking - towards him, her two fists blazing.
"Bad Benten! Bad!" he muttered. "You're so getting the couch this time, baby." He turned to Tsunade, staring at her contemplatively for a moment, before looking up at the decidedly unstable and crumbling roof.
"Did it, by any chance, come to your attention that you just took out one of the main support walls of this building? As in, you know, ones that hold it together so it doesn't fall onto our heads turning us into..." A large chunk of roof groaned before falling down like, more or less, ton of bricks, only to explode into rain of wood and stone. "...pieces." Naruto trailed off, as the blonde juggernaut didn't even slow down her purposeful gait. "Ah. Right. Silly me."
The blue glow around the genius medic's fists escalated.
"...that's going to hurt, won't it?" Naruto asked with a sigh.
Tsunade smirked, cocking her fist back.
"Do I at least get some candy?" He asked hopefully.
The blonde paused, staring at the armored silhouette. The genius medic's eyebrows rose up as she gave him an incredulous stare.
"Come on, don't be stingy! Give me some sugar, baby!" The jinchuuriki whined, his eyes wide and moist in a classic puppy-eyed look - though in retrospect, he had to admit that those goggles complicated things. otherwise he was sure as hell he'd have succeeded!
The blazing chakra became nothing less than a raging corona of power as she raised her fist with a snarl, only to stop as the oversized, scaled blade caused her to step back and side-step a thrust from the very-same weapon.
The chakra-empowered fist and the Samehada met with a crackle of power, the sheer force against force, power against power.
"Hey now..." Kisame grinned widely, despite his arms shaking under the raw power he had to block. "Don't you go stealin' other's people prey, eh?"
"You." Tsunade growled, taking a step back, before letting a mighty uppercut. "OUT OF MY WAY!"
Kisame barely had time to bring his sword up before he was sent sailing upwards. But Tsunade wasn't done, launching herself up wit ha half-spin, her elbow almost meeting the shark-nin's ribcage head on, followed by a nasty side chop and a haymaker that connected with Samehada, the air wavering for a moment, Kisame flying out and breaking clean through nearby wall.
For a moment, there was nothing but a dust cloud, that cleared rather quickly in the coastal breeze, revealing the Samehada, halfway buried in the pile of wood and stone. Kisame coughed, rising himself from the ground shakily.
"...whoa." He muttered, smacking his head once, before wincing and hacking out a bit of dust. "...fuckin' gills..."
"You know, he was the one making the waves." Naruto pointed out helpfully. Blame it on someone else no jutsu - he was the master of it since he was five. It even worked. Sometimes.
A haymaker turned the wall the blond was leaning on to gravel as the blond dodged for his life desperately.
Kisame chuckled weakly.
"Sucks to be you." he smirked, forcing his sword out of the rubble pile, only to blink as a large chunk of wall flew at him with speed usually reserved for ninja weaponry. That it outweighed kunai by an absurd margin didn't seem to make any difference at all.
It was only because he was already leaning down to grip the sword tighter that Kisame managed to only get his cloak ripped instead of his head pulverized.
"Sucks to be... who now?" Naruto panted, pushing a bit more of chakra through the ruby blade as he lashed out at the medic, only to wince as the sword shook, his arm feeling the backlash as it seemed to just... stop. "...huh?" He blinked, staring at the sword, then at the open palm that was blocking it. "...uh, shouldn't that... cut?" he made a tiny sawing motion. The blade moved, leaving no mark on the blonde's palm.
"The fuck you're doing?" Kisame frowned. "Cut her, for god's sake!"
"I am trying but..." Tsunade's nasty smirk widened a fraction. " it seems I am having some technical difficulties here." Tsunade's smirk was becoming toothier by the minute. It was both sexy and really, really damn fucking scary. It reminded him far too much of Sasuke when the bastard had one of 'those' ideas.
'Screw this!' he thought with panic, turning to perform a strategic retreat 'I'm outta-' he paused, noticing that he didn't seem to move. Or rather that his body did, but his sword somehow... didn't. In fact it stayed all but glued to the kunoichi's hand. "oh. shit."
Tsunade smiled sweetly.
"I'm going to give it all to you... 'baby'." Her voice was like silk, and for a split second, Naruto didn't know if to be really turned on or really damn scared.
Then he really didn't have time or capacity to know anything, besides the fact the world saw fit to turn upside down and like a jealous lover, had stolen all the air from his lungs accompanied in the company of some really nasty cracks.
He didn't even feel the wall he hit as he was sent flying, which was a blessing considering it was actually made rather solidly and oak was rather sturdy.
'...count... small... blessings...' He thought groggily. Though it could be worse - it could have been stone. "Good oak... sofffft 'ak... gunna plant some oak w'n 'm gunna get home..." Naruto slurred, patting his hands around, looking for some purchase to crawl up, only to resign a moment later. He didn't quite know where was up at this particular moment anyway.
Kisame didn't know if to wince or chuckle at the other swordsman.
"Man, that was really pathetic." He said finally, taking in the sorry state of his previous opponent.
"Oh fuck you, Kisame." Naruto grumbled, finally feeling the horizon arranging itself. with some black spots at the edges of his vision and the glorious pain of ribs doing the macarena instead of just sitting where they should, but he was standing at least. Somewhat "Fuck you."
The shark nin smirked, hefting his sword.
"Well, so far you're the only one getting fucked around here, chump." He wiped the blood from his lips, wincing inwardly. He fought some good taijutsu specialists before, but that woman was impossible. Just a few blows, some of them didn't even hit fully, and he could feel the damage all over.
"Still... gotta say... after seeing Orochimaru, I thought the Sannin were just a bunch of has-beens, but that woman..." he trailed off, his grin widening. "Shame about the circumstances but I can still have some fun, eh?" he nukenin shook Samehada off of the gravel, spinning it over his head.
"Come on, then, princess!" He said cracking his neck, his fingers starting to move in seals. "Let's get this-"
The honey brown eyes narrowed. Kisame's widened.
"Let's not." The medic nin snapped, and Kisame hissed out as a vicious palm strike almost crippled his left hand.
"...sonova-!" he snarled, bringing his sword down at the medic who - instead of evading - just took the weapon head on, blocking it with one arm.
The large ninja stared dumbly as the scales, instead of ripping into flesh greedily, just seemed to settle on the skin, doing nothing more than pressing on it a bit. No dent, no cut - not even a scrape.
"...what the-?!" he stammered out, before being sent flying.
"That sword of yours is a chakra absorbing weapon, isn't it?" Tsunade said, cracking her knuckles as she advanced on groggy, disoriented Kisame. "I felt it the moment you hit me. A good weapon but..."
The Kiri renegade cursed, barely blocking a vicious haymaker.
"...useless when someone can control their chakra to prevent anything it can latch on." Kisame staggered back. "And when someone has enough knowledge to send out a pulse of chakra that matches the exact amount of power used to activate it and its ability..."
Kisame froze, staring as the scales on Samehada trembled, before cracking.
"...then that weapon's attack is useless as well." Tsunade smirked, looking up at Kisame, who was staring at her with disbelief.
"And when one has enough strength...!" The genius medic smirked, cocking her fist back, her feet planted firmly.
To be honest, Kisame wouldn't be able to tell afterwards just how powerful the strike was. Contrary to the ones before, it didn't send him flying - the force behind the blow was just so incredibly controlled and focused it was almost inhuman.
His arms snapped, even the chakra-enhanced, almost impossibly tough cartilage not able to withstand the raw force behind the blow. But Kisame barely noticed, staring dumbly at his blade.
"Toys will remain toys." Tsunade's smirk widened a fraction as, with a soft groan, Samehada's blade developed a long crack in the middle. Then another. And another. "And toys..." With a shudder, the blade broke. "are easily broken."
The Kiri nukenin just stared with disbelief at the sad remains of his weapon, before doubling over as the chakra scalpel he didn't notice before finished its job.
He looked up at Tsunade, utter disbelief in his eyes.
"Breaking... Samehada... with bare hands?" he wheezed out, looking at her incredulously. "What... the hell... are... you...?" The renegade fell face first into rubble among the remains of his sword, a small cloud of dust the only sign of his passing.
"Haaaa..." The blonde stretched, exhaling loudly, before straightening again slowly cracking her head from side to side, loosening her stiff neck muscles.
Naruto stared at the corpse for a moment, before biting his lip and vanishing in a swirl of dust.
It took all of his self control not to gasp as he hit the wall a good few dozen meters away, coming out of his unstable shunshin.
For a moment, the vents of the mask were stained red.
'Internal... damage... shit but... she hits hard.' He wiped the blood away, using a brief fuuton ninjutsu, grimacing at the rich, coppery taste. 'Wonderful. Fuckin' wonderful.' He winced, watching as the ruby blade wavered monetarily. 'And to add an insult to injury my chakra's getting low after fighting that freak and boosting up Raika. Dammit, what a blunder. It really cost me too much power but... who could expect something like it? To stop a chakra blade with both 'cutting' and 'piercing' characteristics with only bare hand and chakra control... to think something like that was even possible... she really is on a whole other level, that woman.'
"And where do you think you're going?"
Naruto cursed, his head darting up at the familiar silhouette standing over him.
"...how the-?!" He backpedaled, a hammer punch missing him by a hair's breath. It didn't matter anyway as the earth exploded, bombarding him with rocks and dirt, causing him to half-stagger, half-slide back under the onslaught.
"Next time you try to run, try turning that thing off." She smirked, dusting off her hands.
"...heh." Naruto chuckled, wincing as the shattered ribs reminded him that it wasn't such a good idea. "Felt the chakra signature, huh? I guess that's top medical genius' senses for you."
"Well I would, but aside from that, it kind of glows. Brightly." Tsunade deadpanned.
Naruto blinked owlishly, looking at the crimson, cheerfully pulsing blade with occasional bright red spark erupting over it.
"Oh." he said eloquently, only to curse and stagger back as he blocked a punch.
'Shit!' The jinchuuriki gritted his teeth. 'It is good Raika is so oversized and wide. It allows me to defend by body easily, even if attacking is difficult. But there is more than one way to skin a cat!' He side-stepped a straight punch, letting Tsunade's fist slide over the blade before nudging the edge just a tiny bit up and pushing it forward. The blade crackled, burning through the fabric as it bit into the medic's side. 'YES!'
...only to stop.
"Huh?" Naruto blinked. "...the hell?!"
"You think that only my hands can stop it?" A vicious palm strike caused him to gasp and scream as he was sent flying. "You don't learn well, do you?" Tsunade briefly eyed a long, blackened cut at the side of her shirt, and Naruto simply stared, noticing absolutely unblemished skin under it. "Something like that can't cut me!" She smirked, stomping so hard a section of the floor rose, kicking it at him before it had a chance to fall.
'Fuck! How the hell?!' Naruto's mind was moving a mile a second. 'Don't panic! Don't fucking panic! Think! She said chakra pulse but-!' He ducked, desperately trying to avoid another punch, only to earn a kick that sent him flying for his trouble. 'Screw this! I can't fight like this!'
A seal later, the familiar rush of shunshin swallowed him... only to break and leave him stopped cold mid-stride as the kunoichi's hand held his shoulder in a vice-like grip.
'Shunshin... she grabbed me out of shunshin...!' Naruto thought dumbly. 'But that's just not-!'
"Running somewhere?" Tsunade purred with a raised eyebrow. "Didn't you want a piece of me, boy? Here, have some!"
Naruto's mouth opened in a soundless scream, but all that came out was a hiss, accompanied by a crunch of breaking and cracking bones. Or maybe it was the roof - he wasn't quite sure since he broke through it at the same time and all.
"Psssh." The blonde sneered, cracking her knuckles as she looked through the hole she made with the young ninja's body. "Stamina problems? You have no endurance at all." She smirked, stomping her foot and kicking a large chunk of debris towards the abused silhouette.
Naruto grunted, rolling under the projectile and trying not to wince when it punched a sizable hole through the wall, only to curse and run out - or rather hobble out really damn fast considering his condition - as the building fell down on itself like a house of cards.
"...oh fuck me..." he muttered, blinking. "What the fuck is this... a fight or a goddamn wholesale landscaping?!" he exclaimed with disbelief. "...hey." The jinchuuriki frowned. "Wasn't she on top of that-" he paused, face - or rather mask - palming as the familiar blonde figure stalked out of the huge dust cloud, a little dirty with her clothes a little worse for wear but otherwise unhurt. "Oh for the love of-!" Naruto whined. "Come ON! That's just not fair!"
Tsunade didn't bother to comment, the corona of power over her fists blazing to life yet again.
'...gonnadiegonnadiegonnadie...!' Naruto looked around desperately, looking for some sort of advantage, no matter how trivial as he raised the sword into the defensive position, only to blink as one of the countless small discharges ran over the blade.
'Wait. Chakra pulse of the exact same amount do nullify but-' He paused. 'But that is with the constant output. But this weapon... it still carries both mine and Sasuke's affinities! That means it can jump from one to other!' He realized, thinking a mile a second. 'The timing would be critical, but she can block only one chakra type at the time! Meaning if I add another...! Fuck, it will cost me most of my remaining power, but this... this just can work!'
Despite the pain, pain and danger, he could feel the familiar spark welling deep inside him. overpowered, outclassed, and alone...
"Who the fuck CARES?!" The blond grinned, letting the remaining power gather in his hands, a faint wave of power scraping to shake the dust off of his armor.
Tsunade's eyebrows rose as the wavering crimson blade exploded with raw power, ceasing to waver, instead vibrating with the chakra pumped into it, the hum becoming a purring growl.
"You are really stubborn, aren't you?" She asked with amusement. "Do you think simply using more power will work?"
Naruto said nothing, letting the chakra burn in his body, ignoring pain and exhaustion.
"Fool but..." She shook her head with amusement, taking a stance. "I acknowledge it, that determination of yours! COME!"
The blond snarled, the sparks shrieking to life with re-doubled intensity.
Tsunade's eyes widened as the blade, from the ruby-red, started to change tinge into deep purple shine, the lightning crackling over it now without a pause.
Just as she noticed that, Naruto exploded forward with a howl, swinging the pulsing edge at her.
The flesh and growling chakra met.
Sasuke stretched, rising from her throne.
"Well, that's enough time wasted, I think." She murmured. "The recuperation can wait until we're back at the Golden Sparrow."
She frowned, looking at the sakura-covered corpse, before grimacing.
"Cheap, brother-dear. Really cheap." she sniffed, turning on her heel only to freeze and fall to her knees as a strong wave of vertigo hit her. "...what...?" She gasped, her eyes widening as a sharp pain ran through her body, followed by a wet cough. "...what in the world...?" She whispered, looking at the bood dripping from her mouth. "What is-" Another cough shook her body, blood splattering on her yukata even as a strange, burning spike ignited in her solar plexus. "...guuuh...!"
She slammed her fist repeatedly on the floor, trying to get her bearings, leaving her knuckles bruised and bleeding. Sasuke didn't care at this point.
"...that... FOOL!" Sasuke-chan gasped. "I told him...!" Ignoring the pain, she dragged herself up, using the nearby wall to do so. "That crazy idiot...! What the hell... are you doing...?!"
She fell on one knee, her legs too shaky to hold her, and bit her lip angrily, drawing blood.
"...I can't do... anything like this...! See what you have done...?!" The neo-girl gasped out, leaning back as a stream of blood from her bit lip slid down to her abdomen. "...tch. No way around it, then..." She muttered, closing her eyes and performing several seals with shaking palms.
The butterfly-like symbol on her chest glowed briefly, before vanishing.
"Mistress...!" The tiny kunoichi shot out of the small cloud of smoke so fast she was nothing more than a blur. "Mistress, you need to-!"
"Get Keisei and go help that idiot!"
"But mistress-!" The tiny warrior fretted.
"Go!" Sasuke slammed her hand down to the floor, cracking the tiles. "GO NOW!"
The tiny kunoichi bowed her head low, biting her lip.
"As you command." She barked out, vanishing in a swirl of shunshin.
"...stubborn idiots... goddess, but I am surrounded by stubborn idiots." Sasuke muttered, leaning on the wall and closing her eyes. "Naruto, you moron..." She murmured tiredly. "What the hell are you thinking...?"
"Two types of chakra." The muscles danced under the milky skin. "To cycle between them constantly... that wasn't a bad plan. You have much more skill than I suspected, but in the end..." The violet weapon crackled once, before whining in protest as the blade diminished, wavering and pulsing madly. "It was useless."
Naruto stared, wide-eyed as his weapon was all but coming apart at the seams under the ever-growing pressure of the fist pressing at it.
"H.. how...?" He wheezed out with disbelief. "That switch... should have... neutralized that pulse of... yours!"
"This weapon... it is Raijin, isn't it?" Tsunade smirked. "Did you know? Raijin is the Senju Clan weapon."
With a loud, almost mournful crackle, the blade collapsed under the force of the punch, the beam of focused chakra shattering into numerous irregular sparks as Jinchuuriki was sent flying.
"For me, Raijin has no secrets." The kunoichi stalked slowly towards the groggy blond. "You aren't bad, but using that weapon was like giving me the advantage from the very start. It can't cut me. It can't hurt me. It can't so much a slow me down even if I let it." She flexed her fingers a few times. "Because of that old blood of the Forest, Raijin no Ken recognizes only one master. And that's SENJU!" She cocked her fist back, before punching the faltering mockery of the blade.
"...that's... nice.. but..."
Tsunade stared in astonishment as the crimson blade reformed, pushing her punch back.
"That girl... ain't Raijin...!" The crimson sword blazed yet again, if shorter and smaller than before. "That's Raika!" Naruto snarled, pushing back. "And she's MINE!"
"Call it whatever you want." Chakra spiked over Tsunade's fingers as she grabbed the pulsing blade I will still..." the energy blade wavered, twisting, before exploding around her hand and doubling in size.
Naruto stared dumbly as the sword seemed, to, of all things, stretch, before growing yet again, only to falter as a feeling of vertigo hit him.
"What the...?" he gritted out, feeling as the weapon mercilessly pulled at his chakra.
"...hell?!" Tsunade snapped, trying to pull her arm back.
With almost sick fascination, the two shinobi observed as the bluish burst of chakra met the crimson one on a pace that seemed almost lazy, yet was too fast for either of them to do anything but watch.
For the briefest of moments, the blue overcame the red, almost seeming to suffocate it until the whole energy blade was nothing but azure with occasional freckles of washed out cherry.
Naruto's eyes opened wide, his whole body stiffening.
A second later, Tsunade's arm shook as Raika's hilt started to vibrate, steam exploding from its ends with a loud hiss, followed by a screech.
The azure faltered and then the red hue darkened, coiling like an animal.
Naruto could feel it. that familiar buzz in his veins, the spike of pure rage, of red fury and savage joy boiling...
Tsunade shuddered, before faltering and screaming.
A raw, primal scream of unadulterated pain as the hungry red all but swallowed her arm whole, snuffing out her powerful, perfectly controlled chakra like a candle.
The energy ripped at the medic's flesh with almost gleeful abandon, engulfing her limb in a pocket of volatile chakra that sank into her like teeth, both into flesh and into her chakra coils alike.
Naruto paled, grabbing the hilt of his weapon and trying to drag it away from Tsunade by force, but it was no use His palm was open but the sword just didn't budge. He wasn't channeling any chakra at all, and yet the energy still poured regardless.
'That's impossible!' He thought with panic. 'Kyuuubi's dormant and can't channel power unless the seal lets it, so how the fuck does it-' He froze, staring at his sword, then at Tsunade's arm. Arm that was, despite being devoured, whole and...
The jinchuuriki blinked.
"...are those claws...?"
Tsunade's head darted up and the now-slit pupils glinted, eyes narrowed as she growled, showing off a nice set of rather sizable fangs in her mouth.
The crimson hue at her arm, coiled, as if wounded and Naruto froze, screaming in pain as the tendril snapped away from the kunoichi only to explode, throwing them both away from each other.
But at that point he was beyond caring or feeling that little tap compared to the raw fountain of pain that erupted in his head. It was burning. It was hurt. It was angry it-
Naruto's red slitted pupils met Tsunade's own amber ones.
It really wanted to tear something apart.
A pebble, once a part of a wall, danced over the wooden beam, bouncing off the wet wood and sinking down into mud below almost without a sound.
Shizune landed on the beam softly, using chakra to avoid slipping on the wet surface.
"This is..." The young kunoichi looked over the pile of rubble with unreadable expression, combing her wet hair away from her forehead for the second time in as many minutes.
The small drizzle that started shortly before turned into strong rain.
'Though it isn't a bad thing.' The young medic thought absently, observing the ruined buildings. 'At least there will be no risk of fire in that kind of rain.'
Somersaulting, she allowed the gravity to carry her down, letting the chakra in her feet cushion the fall to avoid sinking into a mix of plaster, dirt and gravel that turned into treacherous, sticky mud.
She inspected the completely ruined street numbly. It was half instinct half pure fear that caused her to not only usher away the people from the casino, but also force the rest of the bystanders to run. Though she had to admit once the fighting started the people really didn't need any encouragement. If anything, she had to use Kage Bunshin to slow the small but terrified mob down to direct them in any semblance of order.
'Three ninja did this... only three people.' She touched a nearby wall - the only remnant of a solid, two story building that used to stand there - and blinked as it crumbled under her fingers, finally falling down with a groan. 'Just three people.' A bit of hysteric chuckle escaped from her throat despite her best intentions. 'That's... that's just ridiculous.'
And in some ways, it was. Half of the district was just... gone. Granted, it wasn't a big district, but...
She was a medic. In her time with Tsunade, she had seen a lot of things. While the older kunoichi loudly proclaimed she was done with anything ninja related, they none the less traveled many paths, seen a lot of things, and even weathered a few small local wars. Though one thing Shizune learned then was that when people decided to kill each other in groups, it was never 'small', no matter how few of them there were. The suffering was just the same, only the scale changed.
She had seen towns hit by strife before. Hell, she might have been a little girl then, but she had remembered the aftermath of the last Shinobi War well enough! Blown up buildings, burned out husks of houses... yes, all of that and more.
But this went beyond that.
Half of the district was just gone. There was nothing to salvage, nothing to rebuild - it was just one, big pile of wood, stone and paper, with craters littering the countryside in almost every direction.
She knew that kind of damage. Or she thought she did. She had seen it dealt out in one of Tsunade's tantrums when her mentor's volatile temper was aroused, but... it was usually a broken door, sometimes a table. Once or twice a collapsed wall. The sheer magnitude of overkill in this place, however, was just... absurd.
If Shizune didn't see it with her own eyes, she'd swear a small army was waging a war here. But she couldn't deny her eyes.
The kunoichi shuddered, biting her lip. She didn't see much - she was too busy both ushering people away and patching the wounded but even those scraps she had managed to catch...
She had grown up hearing stories about Sannin's prowess - how could she not? They were Konoha's heroes, among the strongest ninja of their era, and her uncle was going to marry one of them. She had always heard those stories, those almost impossible, larger than life stories of the great Tsunade-hime, princess of the forest, the woman who could heal mortally wounds with a touch and rip an army apart with her bare hands a second later. The strongest kunoichi, the queen of the battlefield.
She knew them to be true, but at some level - even after seeing her mentor's occasional destructive flares of temper - it still seemed just like the fairy tale. Something you remember fondly from childhood and smile thinking about, but then move on to more 'real' things.
On this day, however, she could see it. She could see all those stories brought to life before her very eyes and, for the first time in her life, be completely, unflinchingly sure that people telling those stories didn't exaggerate one bit.
Shizune's fists clenched, and she noted with surprise she was shaking a bit, and not from the cold.
She didn't know if it was from fear... or excitement.
To be honest, at this point, she didn't know which was which. At the end of the fight the killer intent started to grow and spike all over the place, strong enough for even civilians to notice.
Taken by surprise for a moment Shizune thought she'd suffocate until she brought her rattled nerves together. The feeling was raw, savage, aggressive... and almost disturbingly familiar.
She shook her head, dismissing the memory as she nimbly navigated the smashed streets.
"Tsunade-sama... where are you...?" muttered the young medic with frustration as she jumped on a roof of one of the few intact buildings left.
She didn't believe that Tsunade lost. Couldn't. Even if not for a fact that she was sure her mentor had an advantage the last she saw it, she didn't doubt for a minute Tsunade had won. She was Tsunade. She might lose fortune at gambling, she might be the legendary sucker losing any kind of wager, but on the battlefield or in the operating room, she won. That was how it was. It was Shizune's personal law of nature that she believed with almost religious certainty.
"Ahhh dammit! Where could she-"
"Here."
The young medic yelped, turning so fast she almost got a whiplash, only to blink.
Her mentor was half sitting, half standing, her back propped on a broken piece of wood that once had to be a column holding a ceiling or something equally heavy. One of her legs was bent, her left hand resting on her knee, while the other was straight, propped on a piece of stone in a comfortable position. Her head was slightly bowed, propped on her wrist, the usually neat hairstyle out of her customary ponytails, her blond hair hanging around in a wild, untamed manner, even under the harsh rainfall.
Tsunade's face was a map of scratches and cuts - though from the way they were slowly healing Shizune guessed her teacher had to be using the lesser, non-damaging Souzo Saisei that allowed her to heal wounds on a much slower, but far safer rate that didn't wear out her body.
The rest of her didn't fare any better. Her left arm looked as if it was attacked by some wild animal, but for all the cuts and numerous wounds, it looked positively pristine to the right one, which was...
Shizune blinked owlishly.
'Is that steam...?' She thought dumbly.
Indeed, if her eyes weren't deceiving her, Tsunade-sama's right arm was covered in strange, jagged lacerations that looked like teeth marks but, oddly, weren't bleeding despite their jagged, raw state. They were, on the other hand, steaming like a cup of hot tea.
Her mentor's gray shirt was ripped almost to shreds, the remains tied just enough to cover some of her impressive bust but leaving her stomach bare, displaying a large gash crossing it. Her pants, if one might cal them that anymore, were little more than dirty, dust-matted cutoffs now, and Shizune was surprised that they even held. Her mentor's sandals were a fond memory, leaving her barefoot, though from the looks of it, she didn't seem to mind all that much.
Her legs, despite all the clothing malfunction, did seem to fare far better than her arms, sporting relatively few minor gashes, none of them looking even remotely serious-
Shizune froze, her eyes widening.
"...ah, Tsunade-sama...?" the young medic said, trying to remain calm as she reached for a tissue. "Could you please look away for a moment?"
The blonde looked at her student curiously, for a moment, following the young woman's gaze to her bloodied arm.
"Ah. That." She looked at it contemplatively. 'Don't worry. Most if it isn't mine despite how it looks."
"Tsunade... sama...?" The younger woman trailed off, licking her lips. "But... the blood... I mean your hand, the blood..."
The other kunoichi looked at Shizune oddly, before blinking.
"Oh." She said, turning back to her bloodied arm with bemused look. "Don't worry. It doesn't really... matter." She kept looking at her hand, before absently shaking most of the remaining blood off without care.
She was tired. Her muscles were aching like crazy, her knuckles were protesting about the abuse she put them through after nearly two decades of inactivity, her legs were bitterly reminding her she didn't kick anything bigger than a bar table in a long time - most certainly not solid walls - until today and she might have been just a bit out of practice. Most of all, even as she directed her chakra to heal the impressive array of nicks, cuts and gashes all over her body, each of them was screaming and cursing at her in the ancient language of pain. Pain that was doubled, as the healing process made her twice as sensitive to the whole ordeal than she would have been otherwise.
She'd love nothing more than to get a nice bottle and sit down in some cozy room and allow herself to heal. She felt empty. Spent. And, oddly enough, it was good empty. Not the kind of hopeless, dead-tired post-combat numbness that makes you want to drink to forget, but the clean, pure kind that ebbs away into slow buzz as the adrenaline settles down to quiet simmer with a satisfied sigh.
The anger, that berserk fury - for she couldn't call it any other way - was gone, the red haze lifted, leaving her head clear if a bit numb from the exhaustion.
It was almost cathartic in some odd way.
She flexed her palm a few times, slowly clenching it into a fist and then opening it again.
Her hand flared with pain, but followed like a well-oiled machine, not a hint of a shake or trembling muscle to betray her exhaustion.
"Tsunade-sama?" Shizune looked at her mentor with worry. "Are you all right?"
"You know what Shizune?" the blonde looked at her pupil with a thoughtful frown, getting up from her seat. "I think I am." She stretched, allowing herself a tiny wince as her wounds protested, but ignoring it. "Come on. let's see to the wounded."
"But, Tsunade-sama, you're hurt and-" the younger woman fretted.
"Shizune." The older medic's voice stopped the other kunoichi mid-sentence, and she smiled nervously seeing her mentor's pointedly raised eyebrow.
"Ah, as you say, Tsunade-sama." She agreed meekly.
The genius medic nodded with satisfaction, walking away for the rubble. Her pupil looked at her bruised back covered by the skimpy shreds of material, shaking her head with bemusement.
"Well, Tsunade-sama is Tsunade-sama is Tsunade-sama, I guess." She muttered with a sigh. "No matter what happens, she is still so irresponsible..."
"I heard that!"
The world came to with a shudder and a wobble, followed by pain.
"...guuh..."
He tried dragging himself upwards as the familiar coppery taste exploded from his mouth, only to find he was already sitting.
'Well, at least I won't choke on my own vomit. Hooray, I guess.' The blond spat the blood weakly, gasping for breath, only to stiffen and hiss as his body spasmed.
"...shit." He raised one trembling arm, only to grimace at the sight of battered, broken and bloodied steel. "Fucking piece... of JUNK!"
He slammed his hand to the ground with the bit of strength he could muster, choking as a spike of pure fire seemed to explode all over his shoulder as the abused gauntlet broke with a groan. Ignoring the pain, the jinchuuriki raised his arm again, staring at the pale skin criss-crossed with numerous burn-like marks that steamed softly in the evening air.
"Rebound... huh?" Naruto let his hand fall again, ignoring the minor momentary spike of pain.
"Forced drain...? Or did it just react to the seal? Mokuton...? Seesh... it was fuckin' absurd... what the hell was that thing-?" His eyes widened and he doubled over, choking out a mouthful of blood.
The boy's vision blurred for a moment, and he faltered, almost slipping off the tree trunk he was propped against, but before he could land into the pool of his own blood a tanned hand stopped his descent gently, redirecting him to something softer and by far more comfortable than a tree trunk, unfastening his broken rebreather along the way.
"Even protecting your internal organs with the chakra shell and you still end up like that..." A loud exhale was followed by a thick cloud of menthol smoke. "Good grief, she's still as absurd as ever."
"So. Saw it, did ya?" Naruto sighed, rising his hand to wipe the blood off his mouth, only to be stopped by a pointed look from two spinning wheels. "...feh. I'm not an invalid. I can move."
"Nine of your wounds would qualify as mortal." Sasuke said mildly, taking a long drag off of her cigarette. "Jinchuuriki or not, most people would be dead by now."
Naruto snorted softly, only to regret it as a loud, wet cough followed, splattering a generous amount of blood over the kunoichi's yukata.
"...sorry." The man wheezed, shaking slightly. "Shit...!"
"Don't worry." A cool hand touched his forehead, and he relaxed as the faint green glow it was enveloped in seemed to seep right into his blood.
"Should I be..." he coughed, wincing as another bit of blood splattered over Sasuke's thigh. "laying like that...?"
"Sorry but... I a bit messed up myself right now." Sasuke leaned back tiredly, "Whatever you did with that sword backlashed at one point. I forced myself to move to get you out so I need a moment." She frowned, the tip of her cigarette burning brightly for a moment as she took a long drag. "Seesh. That mermaid of yours is really stubborn."
"Huh?" Naruto look up blearily.
"I wanted her to get there to back you up or get you out, but it was useless." Sasuke paused, her frown deepening. "Though she did find you pretty quickly. Useful, that."
Naruto chuckled weakly, stopping abruptly as a series of coughs caused him spit more blood.
"She's really awesome that way." he wheezed out.
"Like the sword?" Sasuke snarked. one eyebrow raised.
"Ouh. Now that... hurt." Naruto murmured, trying to pout.
"Well, that's good. It hurt me as well." She flicked the remains of her cigarette, before grabbing another and lighting it almost as soon as the old one fell to the ground. "What the hell were you thinking you moron? Didn't I tell you? Doing something like that using a half-assed copy you did on a pleasure cruise... are you out of your fucking mind? That thing could have just blown right into your face for all you knew!"
"It isn't a... thing. She's... Raika." He unclenched his right hand, letting the black hilt criss-crossed with faint crimson vein-like marks roll onto Sasuke's lap.
"Oh for the love of-" Sasuke pinched the bridge of her nose, biting on the cigarette viciously. "Please tell me that isn't what I think it is?"
The blond tried to smile innocently, but this time the puppy dog eyes failed miserably. It might have been because Sasuke was annoyed and really contemplated bashing Naruto's head in right then and there. Or it might have been the blood on his face. Who knew?
"Of course. Silly me." Sasuke muttered with a sigh. "Do you have some kind of deeply rooted suicidal fetish I should know about? Should I start dressing in razor blade bikini now or something?"
"Not really." he grinned. "But... those skimpy... chainmail ones would be really hot."
Sasuke blinked.
"Well, that fever must be worse than I thought." She said with a smirk.
The jinchuuriki chuckled, before stiffening and opening his mouth in a soundless cream as Sasuke's hand daintly ripped away a piece of armor, splattering some blood on the grass.
"You can scream." Sasuke said absently, ripping yet-another armored plate that ended up stabbed into the flesh courtesy of an overpowered punch. "I warded the area."
"...ane...stheSIA!" Naruto snarled out, biting his lip.
"Sorry. The pressure points I required to perform that little miracle are kind of under all that armor, so I need to remove it first. And I am out of drugs after I made that poison." She frowned, struggling with a shoulder plate until it came out with a wet squelch. "Sucks to be you, I guess."
"...sa...dist...ic...bitch!" the blond wheezed out.
"How nice, I didn't know you cared!" Sasuke smiled brightly, before stabbing two of her fingers into Naruto's ribcage, causing the blond to stiffen and scream. "You flatterer you." She dragged her hand out, and Naruto'd swear he could both feel and hear two of his ribs cracking. "You're making me blush. " She covered her mouth as she laughed demurely.
"That would have... more of an... effect... if your hand wasn't... covered in my... fucking BLOOD!" Naruto snapped out. "...ou... huuh... shit that HURTS!"
"Well, mortal injuries kind of do that." Sasuke shrugged before pausing and tapping her cheek thoughtfully, uncaring for the red smears she left on her cheek. "Though technically they wouldn't... because they are mortal, so... hmm. An interesting question..."
"Oh just kill me now." The blond rolled his eyes, wincing as Sasuke's hand, glowing green pressed at his abdomen.
"Sorry." She said, sounding anything but. "I don't feel so merciful."
The blond snorted, only for his eyes to bulge out as he felt something cold and really damn painful stab him.
Oddly enough his body was...
"...heeey." He slurred out, marveling at how strangely distant his own voice sounded.
"You are actually lucky you're almost out of chakra and that the furball's energy is busy healing you." Sasuke murmured absently, her hands moving over his chest swiftly, occasionally flashing a more intense shade of green than the constant, faint glow she was giving out otherwise as she healed him.
"That means your body can't fight it so some of the normal healing techniques actually work on you like they should for a change." She sighed, sealing one of the incisions. "Where is... hmm? Already?" She paused. "Now that must have been some HARD channeling. Our friendly neighbourhood furbalina held you together pretty well all things considered, but there is almost no sign of corruption... well, save for the obvious." she eyed the angry red burns on Naruto's arm.
"Strange. It is almost as if someone had buffered the side effects but..." Her frown deepened. "Interesting. Is that Tsunade's doing? But... how?"
"And that is one of the sixty million ryo questions." Naruto murmured, already feeling his chest moving easier due to Sasuke's ministrations.
"Hmm." Sasuke nodded absently, closing yet another wound and making sure the organs under it were in working order. "Well, whatever it is it will help a bit." She frowned, looking at the blond curiously. "I won't even ask how that woman got involved but, sheesh!" She sighed. "Weren't we supposed to do that, you know, quietly?"
"Because fighting with a woman who considers throwing walls at people as a perfectly viable combat tactic can be quiet." Naruto rolled his eyes. "I am so very damn sorry for surviving. Next time I will just let one of the strongest fighters to ever live collapse a building on top of me in a nice and quiet fashion. "
"Don't push it." Sasuke snapped, the Sharingan in her eyes spinning menacingly, causing Naruto to blink.
"What the HELL were you thinking out there, you moron?" She growled. "NO conditioning, shit for weapons... what was that, an attempt in 'suicide by a sannin'? Are you going to start with some 'nindo' crap with 'never retreat' as its core philosophy or something equally inane like that?!"
"Geeez, Sasuke... take it easy, don't get your panties in a-." The blond attempted to raise, only to freeze as Sasuke's hand gripped his shoulder painfully, preventing from so much as moving away form the kunoichi's lap.
"Don't give me that!" The Uchiha hissed. "Going against a kunoichi who not only has senses and control to read your tricks but also power to break them all and you with her bare hands? What were you thinking? WHAT?!" She snarled. "You should have RAN the moment you saw her, you idiot!"
"...sorry." The jinchuuriki looked away in embarrassment. "I just... there was no time and... well, I didn't think it'd go like that."
"You didn't think." Sasuke said flatly. "You didn't think." her grip on his arm tightened and Naruto winced - those nails of hers were damn sharp. "You. Didn't. Think." With each word, her Sharingan was spinning faster, the glare growing in intensity, only for the crimson to vanish abruptly as Sasuke's rage seemed to evaporate. "Dammit, Naruto..." She said tiredly, her grip slacking. "stop doing stuff like that." She slumped.
"...sorry. I..." The blond shifted nervously, before patting Sasuke's back carefully. "Sorry, okay?"
"...idiot." The kunoichi muttered petulantly.
Naruto just laughed with embarrassment, rubbing his neck.
"...tch. You never change." Sasuke snorted softly, though her tone was lighter than a moment before and Naruto chuckled softly, only to wince as the familiar death grip returned for a second.
"...ow!" he protested. "What was that for?!"
"Just so you don't think that you're forgiven or anything."
"Your bedside manner really sucks, Sas- OW! Fucking shit! Cut it out already!"
"Oh my. My hand must have slipped, But seems like that rib is in one piece again, so no harm no foul."
"Like HELL no harm, you-!" The blond paled, biting his lip.
"Patients shouldn't move. Or speak." Sasuke smirked. "Otherwise the procedure can get mildly uncomfortable."
"I. hate. you. so. much."
"Why, thank you ever so kindly. It is always nice to feel appreciated. Now, that might... sting a little."
"...huh? Oh HELL N- GAAAH!"
The world swam to focus slowly. It wasn't the matter of senses but rather the mind. After all, Shoten no jutsu wasn't like some simple Kage Bunshin and required a lot of metal focus. Not to mention it really wasn't meant to be used for so long at such a distance.
"Seems it took you a bit."
He turned to look at the familiar silhouette. The large swordsman was up and running looking no worse for wear. Kisame's fortitude, physical or otherwise, was as impressive as always.
This time, however, the large man wasn't eating like he usually did after any strenous activity, but instead sat with Samehada's form on his lap. To Itachi's surprise, the sword was bereft of its usual covering, instead displaying its scaly nature for all to see. At first, given the slow, rythmic movement over the weapon's blade, Itachi thought Kisame was cleaning it, but then he noted the absence of any cloth.
Itachi blinked.
If he didn't know any better, he'd swear Kisame was... petting the sword. And not just petting - he seemed to do it in a manner one would use when faced with a scared puppy or kitten. While Kisame was far from the most ordinary person, that was odd even for him.
Still, Itachi just shrugged it off - what the hell did he know about living blades?
Absently, he made a mental note to patch that obvious hole in his martial education. The odds of fighting against anyone with anything even approaching Samehada's power were rather low, but who knew?
"So, did you find what you're looking for?" The swordsman looked away form his sword.
"No." Itachi said calmly. "But..." He frowned slightly. "I think I might have found what I needed."
"Oh really...?" The Kiri renegade looked at his partner curiously. "So... that wasn't a hoax after all."
"A hoax...?" Itachi smiled faintly, causing Kisame to blink. "If anything, the heresay doesn't do her justice."
"Well now... aren't you giddy." The swordsman grinned. "Though I think I can get ya. A person who arms soldiers like that..." He shook his head with amusement. "Heh. Your gramps's gonna be frothing, Itachi-san. To think some people like that were swimming under that surface so long... and one of them is an Uchiha?"
"Indeed." Kisame almost chuckled at the rare dash of pure, vindictive satisfaction in Itachi's voice. It was so slight that most wouldn't catch it, but he knew the younger man well enough to notice.
"Seems like we're going to have some exciting times comin' up." The swordsman, hefted the sword on his shoulder with a grin.
Itachi got up, grabbing his Akatsuki cloak that was laying on the ground, neatly folded. He looked at the garment thoughtfully, before finally pulling it on in one, smooth move.
"Most interesting." He turned to the exit. "Without a doubt."
"Good." The swordsman followed the Uchiha at a relaxed pace. "I was startin' to get bored stiff lately. I thought you're gonna wait forever."
Itachi said nothing, nodding slightly.
"So." Kisame started tying a fresh roll of cloth over his sword deftly. "What now?"
"Now we make our report." Itachi said calmly.
"No, I mean in general." The swordsman looked at his partner.
"I don't know yet." Itachi said, frowning thoughtfully. "But first, I think I will go and get laid."
"Oh, well. If you-" Kisame paused, staring at Itachi. "...what?!"
TBC...
Glossary:
Dai Hisen: great waterfall
Ryoura: elaborated cloth
Raika: fire started by lightning
