Sister Goddesses of Autumn, Aki Shizuha and Aki Minoriko!
"Well", shrugged Komachi. "Guess that's that."
Sakura let out a sigh of relief as she turned to see Sasuke nonchalantly scoff at the display before him. This man was regarded as one of the best? Pathetic.
Still on the sidelines, Yuyuko gave a quick glance before turning to the direction she was facing prior.
"Um, guys?" Sanae took a step back and placed her gohei in a battle-ready stance. "I get the feeling we're not done yet."
Kakashi's eye widened. "Youmu-san! Behind you!"
Zabuza's skewered body dissolved into a puddle of water as the real swordsman reappeared at Youmu's back.
"How arrogant of you to turn your back against me."
The wrapped man swung his sword and was surprised to hear a clang. Something was pushing back, but how? She hasn't even done anything!
Leaping back a few dozen meters, Zabuza glared at Youmu in shock as the mist surrounding her moved on its own accord. Slowly, a transparent figure could be made out in the white vapor. It was a duplicate of her, almost in every way except that she was completely white and transparent. The phantom's blades were drawn and-
'Is that what parried my attack?' "Well, this is certainly an interesting turn of events."
Arming herself once more, Youmu vanished in a flash along with her clone.
"What is that technique?" Kakashi asked. "I've never seen anything quite like it."
"It's the bloodline of the Konpaku Clan", answered Komachi. "It's hard to really explain, but I guess it's like calling it an immaterial body that she can command like an extension of her."
"Is there a name for this bloodline?" Sasuke inquired.
"Well", Yuyuko interjected. "We call it See-Through."
'Bad. This is bad.'
Zabuza was panicking as he narrowly dodged the synchronized barrage from the duo. 'I could keep up with her before, but she has too much of an advantage now! I need to pull back.'
After leaping back, Zabuza made a half ram seal and disappeared in a swirl of mist. Both lifting their swords above their heads, the two Youmu swung down and defogged the area once more.
"Suiryuudan no Jutsu (Water Dragon Bullet Technique)!"
Four serpentine columns of water rose, rushing towards Youmu at a breakneck pace. The ghostly Youmu's shape began to shimmer, transforming itself into a wisp and shot out a white pulse from itself, stopping the elemental attack in its tracks.
Dashing through the falling water, the half-ghostly gardener made a horizontal slash at Zabuza, cutting him. The body dispersed into a puddle, as did the three others clones.
Hidden beneath the river's surface, the shinobi-swordsman gather himself for another attack before taking notice of a certain detail, or rather, lack of it. 'Where is that other her?'
Flying directly above him, the wisp flew higher and higher before reforming into a duplicate of Youmu. Swinging her blade down, the phantom became a blur as it sped down to the river.
'Zabuza-sama…'
Tightening his fists, Haku held himself from leaping into the fray to assist his master. Even if he wanted to, there was still that blonde boy next to him. Said person was currently swinging his legs back and forth and whooped and the loud commotions of the fight.
"Whoaaaa, that sure was something!" Naruto looked briefly at him before leaning over and patting on the back. "Heyyy, didn't I tell you to loosen up? C'mon, relax a bit!"
The masked rounin flinched upon the contact. Why was he letting him so close? And why isn't he leaving to help his master?
The water resettled as Zabuza's body surfaced. Several cuts and bruises littered his form as the area around him was tinged pink from the spilled blood. Youmu stood before him, looking down upon his fallen form.
"If you surrender now", said Youmu as she sheathed her swords. "I will allow you to walk away so long as you vow to never return."
Chuckling at her naiveté, Zabuza closed his eyes. "If word gets out I lost and ran away with my tail behind my legs, my reputation would be in pieces. Besides, I haven't even lost yet."
'That's the signal!'
Briefly hesitating, Haku jumped down from the branch. Naruto stared at where he once was before breaking out into a wide grin.
'Huh, so he was able to break out of his own subconscious with sheer will? What a guy…'
A flash of movement caught her eye before Youmu leaped back. Several narrow projectiles sailed right by her and hit the surface water, causing it to freeze and encase Zabuza's body. Appearing atop his self-made iceberg, Haku made a half-ram seal and vanished as quickly as he came.
Muscles tensed as she scouted through the fog with her eyes, the half-ghost shifted her stance.
A hand gripped her shoulder and she nearly swung her blade instinctively.
"Whoa!" Naruto leapt back, hands up in defense. "No need to be so jumpy!"
Sighing at his antics, she took a cloth out of her dress's pocket and began wiping the blood off her katana. Beside her, her phantom half was doing the same for her wakizashi. "Koishi-san, I recently came out of combat with an unknown. While I do appreciate the assistance with his accomplice, please do not distract me from battle."
Giggling, the Koishi-possessed Naruto moved his hands behind his back. "Well, that sure was fun. It's nice to be able to think again and both the kid and I thought you were so cool back there."
Blushing at the praise, Youmu only responded with a more fervent pace of cleaning.
"Well", Koishi mused, "looks the ragtag group's about to come over. You're probably gonna be surprised to hear this, but those two actually had a surprisingly large about of honor, especially that Zabuza. If he's doing some thug job like this, he's got some good reason."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, that's all I could get out of him. I'm an empath, not an actual mind reader like big sis Satori. You'll hear details later from the fox. She's already brewing a plan with the other schemers."
After Naruto regained self-control and offered his own praises to the flushed gardener, the latter made her report of the situation.
"From what I experienced, Zabuza is most likely alive. The injuries I inflicted were mostly non-fatal and he should be able to recover within one to two weeks." Youmu continued, "And his accomplice is also skilled, able to use some form of ice manipulation. He has been established as a male with long brown hair and an androgynous figure. He is easily jounin-level, potentially elite. Either Kakashi-san, Komachi-san or I shall engage him while someone else combats Zabuza."
"Hold on", Sasuke interrupted. "What was that dead last doing with you? I saw you fighting Zabuza, but only him. The accomplice had to be somewhere nearby when he came to save him and I doubt he was just waiting there while you were kicking Zabuza around."
"Actually", Naruto said. "He kinda was."
"You're kidding", Sakura said accusingly, "right?"
"Nope, I've been drafted into the Fuuinjutsu (sealing techniques) corps. I'm actually somewhat of a prodigy, according to them."
"But there's no way!" Even as he loathed admitting it, Sasuke did have to agree with Sakura. Naruto had never shown any type of prowess in the academy. The best he could do were those juvenile pranks he pulled during class. Like that one time he painted the Hokage Mountain in broad daylight… with no one knowing the wiser…
He silently watched as Naruto pulled a paper tag out of his sleeve, noting the tell-tale signs of chakra being channeled into it as it straightened and a faint blue outline flowed along its thin edges.
"This", Naruto began, "is called the Demon Sealing Circle. It's a roughly a B-class binding seal, mainly used to hold down chunin and below. I caught him off guard and was able to hold him off before he was able to break out."
"Fascinating", Kakashi muttered. "Well, as entertaining as this has been, I'm afraid we'll go into more detail once we reached Tazuna-san's home."
Giggling softly in the back, Yuyuko looked on with amusement. 'Oh Ran, you truly are your master's familiar. Such well-woven fabrications.'
The Land of Waves was suffering was an understatement when the escorts first arrived. The air itself was saturated with the depression of the people. Trying to avoid too much eye contact, they moved quickly onwards to the outskirts of town where Tazuna's family resided.
Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, was a kind, single mother who looked after her son, Inari, while her father left for help. She thanked them endlessly for accepting the mission despite knowing its dangers. Inari stood behind his mother, clutching her skirt while staring blankly at the hired forces of his grandfather. A brief glance from Komachi sent the boy running upstairs and slamming the door. The pigtailed-rosette sighed and Kakashi turned to her. She looked back and shook her head, "I'd know that look anywhere. That kid's given on everything because of a lost someone in his life and is just too shy to break out of his own isolation. I feel bad for his mom; to know that she can't help her own son while constantly living a state of poverty and fear." Closing her eyes in nostalgia, she blinked twice and took a more forceful step onwards into their client's home.
Kakashi followed suit. "My, Komachi-san; it sounds as though you've had quite the experience."
Komachi snorted. "Let's just say I'm older than I look."
"That's right." Kakashi smiled as he turned back around from the tree to face his Genin. "And a word of advice: try and go for a running start to get used to the momentum." And with that, he left.
Sasuke rushed at his tree fervently, his first step into the bark caused the wood to smash instantly. Frowning, he leaped off and tried once more with renewed fervor.
Sakura jumped down from the branch, slightly out of breath. She looked towards her fellow kunoichi and saw her lounging atop of a stump. "Hey! What's the big idea? Sensei told us to train! Why aren't you doing it with us?"
Sasuke paused mid-step and skid down the tree. His eyes squinted accusingly at Sanae as she got up.
The green haired girl calmly walked towards an untouched tree and slowly strolled up its trunk, defying gravity and her verdant locks fell as she did so. Settling down on sturdy branch, she looked down towards her teammates. "I already learned this, so I didn't wanna say anything. Have fun with your training, I'm gonna see if Kakashi-sensei needs anything."
Inwardly, Sakura cheered. 'I get some alone time with my man! Sanae, you rock!'
As if sensing her thoughts, Sasuke shivered and dove back into his training. 'Something tells me I need to ignore everything around me for a good while."
"How's this for dinner?" Asked Naruto as he brought in an entire basked full of sweet potatoes.
"Oh!" Exclaimed Tsunami. "How on Earth did you get those? I thought they've all been harvested already!"
Scratching at his whiskers, he put them down onto the kitchen counter. "Let's just say I've got ways."
The housewife smiled at the bountiful gathering. She went back to washing her pots until she looked through the window. "Oh my! I've never seen the leaves turn into all these wonderful colors before! Inari! Come look outside!"
Listening in from outside stood two girls, One has yellow-orange eyes and short blond hair with red autumn leaves. She wore a long red-orange dress with darker red at her middle and arms and more orange towards the bottom and ends with leaf-shaped cut-outs around. A white collar was sewn at the top of the dress. She wore plain black shoes with white socks. The other had red eyes and blond hair. She wore a yellow blouse with fluffy sleeves and a red dress which went about halfway up her chest and has black straps over the shoulders. Over the dress was is a red apron which has a wheat pattern at the bottom, and her red hat had a cluster of blue grapes on the front. Unlike the other, she was barefoot.
Shizuha and Minoriko clasped their hands together and giggled. It was good to see their work appreciated.
Perhaps they'll earn the faith they've always wanted here. Hopefully Lady Kanako wouldn't mind too much if they got a small share.
Whoo, finally got off my ass with this one. Thanks goes to my awesome Beta, Crystal, for being the good sport she is.
Please review!
