Author's Note: I'm pushing through this retarded mental block!! Everyone say it together: HOORAY! I think the story is almost at the half way mark, so I need to start figuring out how to wrap everything up…ANYWAYS, this chapter is like one huge fight scene. In my opinion, it's kinda dull and long, but mailny because I like a lot of bloody, graphic details in my fight scenes. But, I erred from having so much of the gruesomeness in this story (if you like detailed, bloody, stomach wrenching kind of stuff, I would suggest checking out the first couple chapters of Afraid of the Dark. They're intense – more so than this, anyways.) Afraid of the Dark is the new Naruto fanfiction that I'm starting. It will be OC-less (I'm almost certain) and will be focused mainly around Sasuke, Naruto, and the rest of Team 7. (A little more about that story in the below paragraph.)

So, I've started a new story, Afraid of the Dark, to get my creative juices flowing once more. I'm really excited about it. I'm hoping to make it angst-y, detailed, bloody, slightly sadistic, and whatever else my heart feels the need to squeeze in there! (Hehe) To make sure I continue working on this story as well, I will be uploading a new chapter of Shinyuu each time before I post a new chapter of Afraid of the Dark (that means, for those of you who are staying up a bit too late and who's minds are currently not functioning) that you are guaranteed—wait…I lost my train of thought. Hmmm… well, I can't seem to remember what I was about to say. *smirks evilly* Now get lost and start reading! (That's an order.)

Big Paja: I love you, I love you, I love you! You brought several things about the story to my attention that need fixing and I am eternally grateful for your advice!
Randa-Chan: Thanks a bunch for the encouragement, it really helped. Luckily, the new story that wedged itself into my brain doesn't have any need of OCs! Yay!
Ayesha Samura & limjunfag: Thank you for taking the time to review!

Shinyuu: Chapter 9

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"Don't be so hasty." A filthy, muscular rogue ninja mocked as he caught and twirled the thrown kunai on his index finger.

All of the Konoha ninjas turned to face the man and the twelve other rogue ninjas. Everyone was surprised to find that there had been enemies hiding nearby, while Kakashi and Sasuke looked on with indifference and annoyance, respectively.

Kakashi spared a moment to glance at their employer. He was slightly surprised to find that Kouhei's face displayed recognition before a wave of anger washed over the man's body, eyes narrowed, lips pursed, and hands clenched into fists at his sides. Kakashi turned back to the enemies, wondering why Kouhei would be angry at the ninjas, even as he projected his voice authoritatively, "State your business here."

The rogue ninja, who looked like the leader of the group, smiled smugly. He suddenly stopped spinning the kunai and firmly held on to its grip, pointing it the projectile threateningly straight at Kouhei. Kouhei snarled in response. "Hand over that man and we will gladly be on our way."

Neji and Yamato who were standing right next to Kouhei, instinctively moved in front of their employer, drawing kunais and shifting into a fighting stance.

"I'm sorry," Sakura decided to speak up, getting into her own defensive position, "but I'm afraid Kouhei-san will be staying with us."

The rogue ninja's smile seemed to only grow larger. He turned slightly to the man standing directly behind him, revealing to the Konoha ninja, their captured comrade, Konohamaru. The young ANBU was roughly pushed forward, causing him to stumble and giving the rouge leader enough time to position his kunai in across Konohamaru's neck. The boy froze like a block of stone as soon as the cold metal touched his skin and his eyes widened slightly (his ANBU mask had been lost sometime in the fight when he had been overwhelmed and taken hostage). "I'm asking you to kindly reconsider." The rogue ninja smiled toothily.

Meanwhile, Kouhei was struggling through a fierce inward battle. His anger and hate at the ninja that had suddenly appeared was boiling through his blood and he could barely keep himself from lunging forward and throttling the poor excuse for a man.

"What do you want with Kouhei-san?" Kakashi asked neutrally. He needed to buy more time to think over why the rogue wanted Kouhei, why Kouhei would be so angry at the rogue ninja, and how to get Konohamaru back with as little conflict and casualties as possible.

The ninja moved into a more relaxed, yet at the same time threatening, posture, still keeping hold on Konohamaru. "Our leader has ordered us to capture and bring back Kouhei, the man whom, I've heard, has requested this mission. We have been looking for him for a long time now, you see. We had just received information that Kouhei," he nodded towards the man with his chin, "had moved to this very village. By the time we had finally arrived to the village, a fatal sickness had claimed everyone's lives except for two people, Kouhei, who had not been at all effected by the illness, and his son whom was near death. It took some time, but we managed to track Kouhei to Konoha and waited patiently with open eyes and ears for the time when we would strike. You see, we've have been after Kouhei for quite some time and are getting tired of this cat and mouse game, so if you would, send Kouhei in exchange for your comrade, and no one will get hurt." He added a disturbingly large grin at the end of his soliloquy.

The Konoha ninja were silent in shock that these rogue ninja had been after Kouhei for a long time and that Kouhei, somehow, had been able to slip through their grasp each time they tried to capture him. They also silently wondered what Kouhei could have done or been accused of doing, as Sasuke and Konohamaru couldn't imagine Kouhei doing anything bad. Kakashi, Sakura, Neji, and Yamato had their doubts even as their curiosity grew still stronger at who and what Kouhei really was.

"Guys, don't worry about me! As Konoha shinobi, we have a duty to protect Kouhei-san! Forget me and get away!" Konohamaru yelled to his comrades. Kouhei had grown to be one of his friends in the short time they had known each other, one of his important people. And as future hokage, he was willing to give up his life to protect those important to him. This was something he held fast to. It had been Naruto's way of life and it was his way of life.

The rogue ninja growled and clamped his hand over Konohamaru's mouth. He and the rest of his group were growing impatient, "I won't ask again, hand over Kouhei or else we will kill your comrade. We are being paid a large sum of money to capture Kouhei, money that we all desperately need. We're just trying to get our job done so we can return to our families, whom we have not seen in many years." The other rogue ninja added in their agreement.

"Never…" Kouhei growled out. His voice was dangerously low, as his head hung down, fists shaking in rage. His voice was barely heard, but was distinctly animalistic and feral. Kouhei snapped his head up towards the rogue. His eyes expressed so much emotion that they seemed to glow eerily red and it almost sounded as if he were growling deep in the back of his throat. "I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" Kouhei finally shouted out at the top of his lungs, releasing only a sliver of all the pent up emotion he had bottled inside of him.

Konohamaru took the opportunity to bite his captor as hard as he could, effectively distracting the man and making him bleed.

"Ow, damn, you brat!" The rogue yelled, never releasing Konohamaru. Before the boy could cause any more trouble, he hit a pressure point in the back of the young ANBU's neck and caused him to lose consciousness.

Sasuke took the opportune moment of distraction Konohamaru had given him and raced forward, simultaneously drawing his katana from its sheath on his back. Before he had even made it half way, the rogue ninja had taken control of the situation again and had held the kunai even closer to Konohamaru's neck, creating a small incision and drawing blood. "Don't take another step…" He left the threat open-ended.

Sakura ran forward with a burst of speed, drawing back her fist to deliver a chakra enhanced punch.

The ninja grinned evilly with a half shrug, "I warned you…" He then slashed his prisoner straight through his neck, effectively cutting off major blood vessels and cutting open his trachea.

Everyone stopped in shock. For their comrade, Konohamaru, was no longer the aim of the rogue ninja's threats. Instead, a man garbed entirely in black with a tight, black mask that covered all of his features except for his eyes, stood in Konohamaru's place. It was hard to tell, but due to the slight wrinkles in the fabric of the mask, they could all tell the man, whom had just had his neck slit, was smiling out at all of them. A few seconds later the person poofed out of existence, leaving them all in even more shock. Kakashi made sure to glance at their enemy's expression to make sure that they weren't playing some kind of trick. In fact, everyone was truly shocked by what had happened in the last few seconds except for one person. Kouhei was surprised, but not nearly as much as he should be, seeing as some strange man had shown up in Konohamaru's place barely half a second before being killed and poofing out of existence. It was most troubling to see that Kouhei was less surprised by the occurrences than all the other ninjas present.

"Substitution and shadow clone?" Neji voiced uncertainly. He had seen the sudden surge of chakra with his activated byakugan and had seen the chakra flowing through the replacement's body. But still, he found it hard to believe.

Yamato searched around for their, now, missing comrade (he was particularly worried as he was supposed to be looking out for his young charge while the boy grew accustomed to his new position, and the boy's death would fall on his shoulders). Eventually, he found the young ANBU on a rooftop several houses down. At the moment, Konohamaru was being lowered to the ground by yet another of the unidentified, masked ninja. The ninja straightened up and looked down towards all the other ninja who had also discovered where Konohamaru had been taken.

Suddenly, the ninja vanished, reappearing in less than a second in front of the leader of the rogue ninja and delivering a punch to the man's stomach that rivaled or even surpassed Saukra's strength. Everyone stared as the leader flew back and crashed through a wall, landing in a heap somewhere inside. The unidentified ninja turns slightly and stared at the Konoha ninja, sending them an untold message, before running forward several feet and then disappearing, only to reappear in the middle of the caught-off-guard rogue.

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Ryuu picked up another Kunai from the small pile at his feet and, after consciously moving into the proper stance, threw the kunai as hard as he could towards the wooden practice target. He grunted at the effort while he constantly bit down on his lower lip in determination. He had continued working with the older academy students to throw his kunai better, and had discovered many ways he could fix his throw. Learning ninja skills was much harder than he thought, but he was determined to be the best ninja the world had ever seen, so he pushed himself to keep going and continue throwing kunai, even when the older kids moved on to practice other skills like katas and moving kicks (which really didn't take entirely that long), and then began sparring against each other. His eyes gazed distractedly towards the older boy Masaru and his friend, Ken, who sat among their peers on the grass watching two students spar. Masaru glanced up from the fight, feeling eyes lingering on him, and locked eyes with him. Ryuu blushed at being caught staring, but Masaru simply smiled and gave a small wave. Ken noticed this too and looked towards Ryuu. Ryuu gave the best smile back that he could manage (which wasn't much considering how tired he was) before turning back to his practice target and taking aim. His head pounded and he felt a twinge of dizziness, but he forced his numb arm to fling the kunai towards the target. It hit, but just barely, the outermost black ring.

"It looks like you're getting worn out." Masaru observed from beside him.

Ryuu hadn't noticed him coming over. He swore to himself that he would train harder and be more aware of his surroundings. Ryuu glanced over to the older boy before bending down and picking up another kunai. "I'm fine, Masaru-sempai, I need to keep working on this if I'm ever going to be a good ninja." He pulled his arm back and started to throw the kunai, but Masaru had firmly grabbed on to his wrist, preventing the throw.

"I think you should take a break; sometimes, if you overwork yourself training, you can do more harm to yourself than you can do good."

Ryuu glared half-heartedly glared at the older boy, but nodded slowly in acceptance.

Masaru released Ryuu's wrist, as he observed how red Ryuu's face was and that the boy was sweating profusely, even in the pleasant – not overly warm – spring air. Suddenly, Ryuu's legs gave out beneath him and he closed his eyes, dropping into unconsciousness, his body demanding rest from him. Masaru quickly caught Ryuu under the arms before he could fall much. He smiled softly at the boy's determined spirit but felt bad that he had let the aspiring ninja work himself far past his limit. He carefully picked up his young charge and walked in the direction of his class towards the side of the school building that would provide a nice shade for the boy. Iruka worriedly caught Masaru's eye, and Masaru nodded to the unasked question, telling his teacher that Ryuu was fine, if only exhausted.

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The unidentified ninja began attacking the rogue ninja, using only taijutsu and the singular kunai, which seemed like he had pulled out of thin air. The rogues had gotten over their shock at the surprise attack and were now overwhelming the mysterious man in an eleven-to-one fight, although no one could manage a hit on him.

Sasuke nodded to himself in self determination before he continued running forward, stopped earlier by the rogue leader's threat, and engaged two of the ninja in a fight. At the rate things were going, if he hadn't jumped into the chaos, he was sure the mysterious ninja would have quickly been taken down. And the other Konoha ninja didn't seem like they were about to do anything too terribly soon. Sasuke was determined to beat the hell out of the rogues, if only to prevent them from taking his newly acquired –did he dare think the word? Yes – his new friend.

Kakashi cut himself off from yelling for his wayward student to come back. He wasn't sure what to do at the moment, but running, head-first, into the throng of battle, was not at the top of the list. That's something I would have expected Naruto to do, not Uchiha Sasuke. He turned back to his teammates, whom he found starting back at him, waiting for instruction. Easily slipping into the role of leader, he shouted out commands, "Sakura, go to Konohamaru and make sure he's not injured as well as keep guard over him so he cannot be taken hostage a second time." Sakura gave a mock salute before turning and running down the street towards the roof Konohamaru had been moved to. "Yamato, stay here and guard Kouhei-san, in case one of the ninja are able to slip past us." Yamato nodded and slid deeper into his defensive stance. "Neji," Kakashi address, turning and making eye contact with the young man as he spoke, "you'll be coming with me." They spared no time in rushing into the fight and claiming several opponents of their own. Even with Kakashi and Neji fighting two rogues each, and Sasuke fighting two after he had already felled one, that still left five of the ninja to battle against the nameless ninja. Even with such odds, Kakashi noticed out of the corner of his eye after delivered a swift and solid kick to one of his opponent's head, the anonymous ninja had yet to use any jutsu, or any technique, really, that would give a clue as to who the man was or how strong he really was.

Sasuke was getting slightly worried –opposite to what most thought, Uchiha were capable of getting worried or anxious as well as any other emotion known to man – they were just better at concealing it than most. Even though he, Kakashi, and Neji had joined the fight, most of the ninja still ganged up on the mysterious man. He shot a glance towards Kakashi, quickly making eye contact, before he sent a powerful three-sixty back kick into his opponent's stomach, sending him backwards into another rogue and towards Kakashi who effectively drew their attention and engaged them in fighting. Sasuke sped to the mysterious ninja's side, easily dodging each rogue with his activated sharingan, and drew several of the rogues into a taijutsu fight while also covering the unnamed ninja's back, hoping the same would be done for him. Sasuke could see the quick flash of a smile behind the man's mask and nodded in return. They fought for some time, each using only taijutsu and their respective weapons, but clearly they weren't making much progress. Not only that, but the leader had emerged from the broken wall of a house and had started fighting against Neji and Kakashi. Clearly the man was stronger than all the other rogue, because he was giving both Kakashi and Neji a run for their money.

Sasuke spun around one hundred and eighty degrees, holding his sword in a reverse grip, swinging his sword at full force and clashing against his opponent's kunai. They were at a standstill for several minutes, neither willing to give up space, before they both jumped back a couple feet, running towards each other at full speed. They engaged again in a deadly dance. The unnamed ninja suddenly showed up at Sasuke's side and caught a kunai that had accurately been aimed at the Uchiha's blind spot. Sasuke, never one to miss an opportunity, used the moment of distraction to gouge his sword all the way through his opponent's neck. Another rogue quickly took the previous' place. Sasuke, growing frustrated with the slow progress, sent a burst of lightening down the length of his katana before swing it towards his opponent. The rogue blocked, but the electricity travelled through the metal of his weapon and sent a flash of numbness across his entire right arm and shoulder. Another rogue cover for his injured comrade and took a defensive stance against the Uchiha. Sasuke attacked with all his speed, but each time he swung, the rogue would be just fast enough to dodge the hit. Sasuke narrowed his eyes in agitation, and devised a suitable plan. He pushed his opponent backwards, to where the unidentified ninja had moved to, until his opponent was within reach of the mysterious ninja, who, upon realizing what Sasuke was trying to do, struck the unsuspecting rogue from the back.

"This isn't working," Sasuke ground out as he blocked an incoming punch with his arm, "There are too many of them and not enough of us."

The unnamed ninja nodded in agreement, but didn't say anything besides.

"I think I've got a plan…follow my lead." Sasuke spoke again.

The man nodded and followed the Uchiha, jumping back a distance from the rogue.

Sasuke preformed a few quick seals before holding his arms forward, shooting a plethora of snakes from his sleeve. The snakes raced towards the four remaining ninja they were fighting and wrapped around the grown men, effectively restraining them.

Almost simultaneously, as if he had predicted what Sasuke was doing, the unnamed ninja flew into a series of his own seals, calling out in a voice that somehow sounded slightly familiar, "Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique!"

The rogue screamed in agonizing pain as they were slowly burned alive. After the jutsu ended, Sasuke and the unnamed man looked to find four dead enemies.

About the same time, Kakashi and Neji seemed to finish up their last opponent. The two jumped over to Sasuke's side, willing to fight the unidentified man if the need arose. The three stared the black-clad ninja down, Sasuke's glare a bit more forgiving than the other's.

Although Kakashi had a completely calm exterior with hands in his pockets, he focused all of his attention of the ninja in front of him. In his mind, he knew that if the unnamed ninja had been able to fight five-to-one using only basic taijutsu, that he would easily be a worthy opponent against the three of them, especially being slightly worn out after their battles. "Who are you?" Kakashi asked in a bland, monotone voice.

The man smiled behind his mask, eyes curving upward before they shifted slightly to the side of Kakashi, growing suddenly somber. Before any of them could react, the unnamed ninja disappeared from in front of them, only to reappear behind Kakashi. The three of them turned to find the man impaled by a kunai that had been aimed at Kakashi's blind spot. The man turned his head towards them with an oddly somber look, before he popped out of existence with a cloud of white smoke.

"A shadow clone…" Sasuke states obviously, bewildered by the fact that he had been fighting alongside a clone.

Neji jumped over to the man that had thrown the kunai and closed the tenketsu surrounding the man's heart, killing him instantly.

Kouhei's worried yell brought Kakashi out of his confused trance. By the end of the fight, he was left with more questions than he had before. He watched speculatively as Kouhei nervously pointed out a bloody scratched on Sasuke's shoulder and demands that Sasuke let Sakura heal him up. Indeed there were many questions yet to be answered, more questions than he was comfortable with.