Chapter 10

"Madara?" Kizutsu repeated, cocking her head to the side. "Never heard of you."

The masked man's step faltered and his one eye widened in stunned surprise. "I… hmm, I didn't think anyone hadn't heard of me. At least any of the big players…"

Kizutsu chuckled and flipped her blade playfully. "Never claimed to be one of the top players. Save for once per season, of course. You're the one claiming to be someone you're not, eh, Good Boy?"

Madara flinched at something in her words and spread out his hands warily. He appraised her again with a more careful and critical eye. "It sounds like we're having two different conversations, but just in case… perhaps you'll tell me where you got this information?"

Oh shit oh shit it's really him! And they're completely ignoring me! If I can just tag him once… Kouri inched her hand with agonizing slowness to the pouch at her hip, never taking her eyes of the two of them for a second. They were silent now, sizing each other up and waiting for the first move to be made. She slipped her fingers under the flap and quested for the loop in the closest kunai. The tip of her finger hooked it and started to pull it out… and it shifted slightly off her fingernail. It settled down onto the next kunai in line with a clank that sounded like breaking glass to Kouri's pounding ears. FUCK!

Hesitation meant death and, worse, the loss of the opportunity. Careless of the sound, she grabbed up as many kunai as she could hold. She whipped her arm around with every ounce of jinton she had, feeling the bones in her arm snap under the pressure of moving so fast. The blades flew true, outracing the crack of displaced air they created. Madara was only slightly through turning his head in her direction when the first kunai sank all the way into his chest, followed quickly by the other dozen.

Kouri's surge of elation plummeted, however, when the blades continued on their way out his back without having caused any damage. Knowing she was dead, she pulled out a handful of kunai with her good arm and leapt at him, hoping she could surprise him by rushing. "DIE, YOU PIECE OF SHI-"

The space between them twisted and spun into a spiral that was centered on the eyehole in Madara's mask. Kouri's body was twisted out of shape and sucked into the hole in space his ocular jutsu had created. Within seconds she was gone and the swirling energies dissipated.

"What a mouth on that one." Madara said, turning back to find Kizutsu crossing the distance between them with her blade at the ready. Confident in his techniques, he calmly waited for her strike to pass harmlessly through so he could subdue her and begin the questioning.

Kizutsu's blade cut into the mask just above the nose and carved left, slicing neatly through the center of his revealed eye. Some shock on Madara's part or instinct on Kizutsu's turned the blow into a nonfatal one, the knife slicing a neat red line along the side of his head and exiting above the ear. The mask dangled from his face as its straps were severed, the whole thing getting knocked clear from his head as he raised shaking hands to his ruined face. He fell back, screaming in pain and shock at how horribly wrong this had gone.

"Don't know what technique that was, but I don't want to see it again." Kizutsu said, glancing around and spotting the mask lying on the ground. "Hey, is that one of the new ninpo masks? I need this!"

"My eye!" Madara screamed, clutching his face while his left eye rolled about madly. "I only have one of that eye! What have you done?" I can… I can fix this. Izanagi… can repair my eye… I don't care about the left one…

"What are you up to now?" Kizutsu muttered to herself as Madara straightened and turned to face her again. "Guess I shouldn't mess around against a guy who gets free successes. Perforate!" Her knife responded by catching light reflecting of it and intensifying it, lancing out in all directions. Mirror images of the blade hovered into existence all around her arm, moving back and forth as she shifted her grip. A quick step as she was right on top of her adversary.

Madara activated his Izanagi just as she swam into his vision. He immediately gauged the technique as one that hid which blade was the real one so that she could strike from an unexpected angle. It was a simple matter for his sharingan to pick out which was the real knife and an even simpler one for his reality shifting jutsu to turn it temporarily into a genjutsu. The attack safely out of his mind, he turned his attention to repairing his body.

He didn't know that her blade's special ability was to be unstoppable.

He was stabbed, each of the illusionary blades cutting into him over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over…

The Earth nin overbalanced himself with his swing, and Reokun slipped under his sword arm and pressed his palm against the ninja's back. "Clear!"

The electric blast snapped the ninja's spine and sent his twisting away through the air. But blood also spurted from Reokun's cracked and charred palm and he pressed it carefully to his chest. The gel's burned away again, he thought, but had no time for more thought as four more Earth nin bore down on him. He passed his good hand over his dwindling supply of potions and selected a bottle of murky purple fluid. He tossed the bottle at them and twisted away, trying to get as much distance between himself and the liquid's splash radius.

One of his pursuers opened his mouth and spat out a stream of fist-sized rocks at his turned back. One of them smashed through the thrown bottle and the fail potion spread out in all directions, only one of them managing not to get hit. The chakras of those three flared to massive levels in an instant. The first put his foot down too hard and embedded it up to the knee into the solid ground. The second lost all footing as his legs moved faster than he was and he crashed into the third, who was holding his hands over his mouth and trying to stem the flow of stones as his jutsu went into overdrive.

The last ninja avoided the tangle of his companions by leaping over them and tossing a series of sharpened stakes dripping with poison. Reokun, back and shoulders stinging from the stone pelting, popped a small vial filled with grains of dark sand into his lips and leaped up to meet him in midair. Several stakes cut into his flesh, but the reversing hourglass mixture he had just downed allowed him to ignore the wounds. He slammed his palm into the surprised ninja's chest and braced himself for the feedback. "Clear!"

The discharge sent them spinning away from each other and Reokun landed painfully on his injured shoulder. He tried to rise to his feet but shuddered, his body trembling with low stamina. I'm almost out of appetite, and they just keep coming. Blood was dripping over his left eye, but he glared in the direction of the huge crater that had opened in the ground. Even as he watched more Earth nin poured out of the opening, several peeling off in his direction.

Reokun huffed and started crawling towards the cover of the trees. He understood that the whole operation had been botched, that even now these invaders were bearing down on Demons, and he needed just a second to get a message back to the village. He wished Katar could cause a distraction to buy him time, after all, what other use is there for someone that loud? But no, the last he had seen of Katar had been him fleeing from at least nine enemies and he had no doubt that he was idled by now. He would have to create his own distraction, with or without chakra and stamina. He fumbled in his pockets for something, anything, he could use and closed his bleeding hand around a ninja-on. He had almost used too many of these already, but it was better than nothing, and he could-

Three oversized shuriken slammed into his back, the tips bursting out the other side. Reokun gasped and fell face first into the ground. This wasn't right; this wasn't supposed to hurt…

The Earth ninja who had made the toss stepped forward to finish the job, but he needn't have bothered. Reokun had idled, and already his blood was turning to sand and dust.

"There's chakra everywhere." Neji said thoughtfully, eyes sweeping in every direction before him. "Most of the trees and a bit of the ground have been infused with it. I don't see any seals or latent jutsu with them, though… just chakra."

"Better to be safe." Kakashi warned, holding his hand out to keep them behind him. "Point out the spots in this area." He pulled out a kunai and threw it at the nearest tree Neji indicated. The knife cut deep into the tree, but there was no other reaction. Cautiously, Kakashi walked forward and placed his hand on the truck. Nothing happened, and he turned back to the others with a smile.

"Doesn't seem dangerous. Probably a sensory technique." He said cautiously, and then with a soft rustling of leaves the tree crashed down on him. There was no other sound; the ground had pulled itself away from the roots and the branches had folded in along the truck. The tree simply pulled itself up and bore down upon him from behind.

Choji reacted first, expanding his arm and catching the truck scant inches above the jonin's head. The tree seemed to writhe in his grip for a moment and then its great bulk pulled away, nearly carrying him with it before he released his grip.

"To the side!" Neji shouted, already moving to place himself between Choji and a pair of rocks that were flying at them. He concentrated his chakra and thrust his palms out, sending a dual blast of invisible chakra through the air. The rocks shattered and rained pieces in a soft arc around him, but he was already moving. He back flipped and vaulted over Choji's back, pooling chakra into his palm. A log that had been lying innocently under a nearby bush was nearly upon them, and with a single touch Neji blasted it away.

"No wonder I have to come out in person." Daga sighed, stepping out of the tree cover. The hood of his cloak was pulled far down to hide his face and his sleeves dangled down over his hands. "I seem to be running into one of you white eyes everywhere I go. Just my luck."

Neji's eyes widened as they locked on this newcomer. "He's got the same chakra I've been seeing. And he's completely surrounded in it; I can barely make him out beneath it."

"He's one of the three I saw in Tikei's mind!" Ino said, "The one who attacked my father!"

"The name's Daga Yemar." he said, bowing slightly and sweeping his arm out to his sides. "And now it's time for you to vanish." He whipped his arms crosswise and shuriken shot out from the depths of his sleeves. Kakashi easily slipped out of the way of the two that bore down on him and noted with satisfaction that everyone else avoided the simple attack as well.

He was calling chakra into his palm, readying an attack to finish this battle quickly, when Neji cried out in shock. "Behind us!"

Kakashi spun and saw that the two shuriken he had dodged had turned around and were flying back at him. He ducked under them, but they followed after him and he barely twisted enough that they missed his head and burrowed into his shoulder instead. The pain was sharp but ignorable as he regained his bearings and turned his attention back to the battle.

Neji had focused chakra into his fingertips and jabbed the missiles out of the air, shattering them to pieces with hardly any effort. He met Daga's charge and thrust his palm out, but Daga leapt backwards out of reach. More shuriken poured out from his sleeves and came at Neji from all sides, causing him to halt his charge. He fell into a comfortable spin, initiating his trademark technique to repel all attacks. The shuriken bounced off his chakra but turned back in midair rather than fly away, hammering into him again and again and pinning him in place.

Choji took the opening to leap into a forward roll from the side. His long hair lengthened and hardened into spikes as he rolled at Daga like an unstoppable juggernaut. But Daga had retreated far enough back to place his hand of the trunk of a tall oak. A thick branch snapped as it moved on its own volition at the same time as a lip of earth lifted up in the human boulder's path. Choji launched off the platform and the branch slammed into him, turning him tumbling aside. But the attack had distracted him enough for the others to hem him in around the tree.

"I understand your technique." Kakashi said threateningly, taking the break in the fighting to inform his teammates. "You can mentally control any object you've infused your chakra with. Showing up in person grants you more precise control, but I assume you can control then remotely as well."

"Heh." Daga chuckled, nodding in his direction. "You are sharp. It's a lot like putting gas in a car; I can move anything as long as I give it enough 'fuel'. But there is one thing you've missed…" Whatever he had been about to say was cut off as his limbs seemed to gain a life of their own. His right arm wrapped around his neck and his left gripped it by the elbow, locking it in place. Daga reeled back, trying to stop his own arms from choking him.

"Go on!" Ino shouted, holding her hands before her in a box shape. "This jutsu won't work on him for long!"

"I'm on it! Get in position behind me!" Negi shouted, releasing a surge of chakra that blasted the floating shuriken away. Freed from their press, he covered the ground in a second and jabbed his fingers over and over again into his enemy's chest. Neji's body blocked the path of Ino's jutsu, releasing his arms from pressing against his throat. Neji slammed into him repeatedly, not able to see the tenketsu through the glare of chakra but experienced enough to aim correctly without it. "Eight. Sixteen. Thirty-two. Sixty-four palms!"

Taking their cue from the last number, Kakashi and Sakura came in from either side. Lightning collected in Kakashi's palm as he stabbed a chidori straight through the chest, ripping open the cloak's zipper. Sakura focused all of her chakra into a single strike, driving her fist into the back of the hood with enough force to reduce boulders into gravel. The hood dented under the force of the blow and tore off.

The cloak was empty.

In the second it took for them to register he wasn't in the cloak, Daga leapt from where he had been hiding the whole fight and landed at Kakashi's side. He was wearing a close fit shirt and black pants cut off at the knee, and a headband tied around his neck. His skin was taught over his muscles as if he had missed several meals and there was an intent glare in his eyes. A pair of wooden dispensers hung from each of his shoulders, each clicking softly as chakra-infused shuriken popped one by one out of them. His feet were bare and made almost no sound on the soft ground.

"What you missed was how fast I can pour chakra." Daga said, punching Kakashi in the side and slamming the heel of his foot into his shin. Kakashi stumbled back and started to turn, but his legs buckled beneath him as his pants pulled his legs out in either direction. The cuffs of his sleeves tightened over his wrists, cutting off his circulation and pulling his arms out to the side. He felt his collar tighten around his throat and clenched his neck to stop it from cutting off his air.

Sakura yelled and tried to pull her arm back out of the cloak, but the garment surged back up around her arm and held on tight. Metal fibers woven into the fabric cut into her arm as it squeezed and she cried out in pain. Almost lazily the sleeves gripped her around the waist, lifting her off the ground and threw her back first into the nearby oak. She slumped unconscious to the ground.

The swarm of shuriken met Neji as he tried to move around the cloak. They dived at him before he could gain momentum for his spin and drove him backwards, his arms moving in a blur to keep their spinning blades away. He was doing well until he felt a hand pat him on the shoulder. His sleeves immediately stiffened, impeding his ability to keep the stars at bay. They sliced into him as Daga turned away, holding out his arms and allowing his torn cloak to flow back over him.

Choji stepped around the oak and roared as he threw a haymaker with an enormous fist. But before he even got close the ground beneath his feet opened and swallowed him up to the waist, throwing his aim wide. Choji struggled against the hungry earth until a large rock lifted up and dashed him across the head, stopping his struggling.

"Let's see…" Daga said thoughtfully. "I think there was one more…" The back of his cloak bulged out as Ino dived at him from behind, catching her by the wrist and lifting her up into the air. Daga turned as the cloak forced the kunai out of her grip and appraised her. He plucked a shuriken from the air and reached silently for her throat.

I have to do something! Kakashi thought from where he crouched, fighting against the tight grip of his own clothes. Veins popped out around his eye as he opened his mangekyu, releasing the Kamui technique. Space began to warp around Daga's body, focusing down to a single point in space.

Daga twisted, losing his grip on Ino in his confusion. Catching a glimpse of Kakashi, he threw the shuriken with all his strength. The hole in space slowly formed around the weapon as the shuriken quickly filled his vision, the shuriken getting smaller and smaller as it closed in on Kakashi's eye. Then it was gone and the jonin slumped down, his head hitting the ground with a heavy thump.

Daga heaved a sigh of relief. "I didn't think it would reach him in time. Now where were…" He froze and cocked his head to the side, as if listening to a sound only he could hear. "Near the village… how many? I don't have any time to waste here anymore. Looks like you lucked out…" he looked around, but Ino was nowhere to be seen.

Shrugging, Daga dropped into crouch. "Runner, don't fail me now." With a surge of speed he dashed off into the trees, leaving the battlefield quickly behind him.

Agrael placed his hand against the gate and shoved it open. The heat radiating off his armored palm left a smoking impression in the wood, but he failed to notice. He blinked through the sweat dripping down into his eyes and stared out through the trees at the sound of the approaching army.

"Daga, you fool." He panted. "This armor is designed to absorb chakra. Just accept my help already…"

He had walked as far as halfway to the tree line when the first Earth shinobi appeared. They appraised each other as several more stepped out from the forest and came to a halt behind their leader. A large man, he reached up and unhooked a pair of maces from his back and swung them around lazily. Wind and dust particles whipped around the spiked heads of the weapons as they revolved, the man advancing confidently.

"Finally." Agrael chuckled, triggering the weapons system. Several metal plates all around his waist, shoulders, and sides slid back to reveal hidden pockets stuffed with cloth-wrapped hilts. I remember seeing Sir Royce fighting in the arena. I guess this is where he kept pulling those enormous weapons from. This is going to be epic!

Visions of giant swords and lances dancing in his head, he grabbed a hilt at random and quickly pulled it out of its pocket. As the end cleared the open air, the small summoning circle inscribed on the end activated and the top was enshrouded in smoke. He brought the weapon down in a great overhead chop, marveling at how easily the armor compensated for the sudden additional weight. The Earth nin stopped short and crossed his maces over his head, catching the descending mop on the hilts.

The two of them paused and blinked at the mop. The limp strands, slightly damp, drooped out from the metal clasp just over the ninja's head. For a surreal moment, Agrael assumed that the armor was playing some trick on him, that it was rejecting him as its owner. Then the Sacred Fire flowing through him coursed up the wooden handle and the mop burst into flames.

Both combatants reeled back in surprise, but Agrael recovered first. He grabbed the handle in both hands and swung it like a bat. The enemy tried to bring his maces around to block, but the flaming metal head sliced cleanly through the spiked heads and into his side. The man hissed and leaped back, pressing his hand against the burned wound. Agrael followed after him and easily slipped past his feeble defense, striking him down with a single swing.

That was almost too easy, he marveled. But then again, it was only a single opponent.

The other Earth nin looked at each other uncertainly, but more of them started appearing and they quickly grew more confident. Agrael appraised them and grinned in anticipation, switching the mop to his right hand. He reached back with his left hand and pulled a hilt from his shoulder pouch, which disappeared in a swirl of smoke. The haze dissipated quickly to reveal a short barreled shotgun also wreathed in flames. The open barrels glowed deep red as he swung it around at the approaching army.

"And this!" Agrael called in challenge, "This, is my boomstick!"

High atop the stone wall of the village, a lone figure gazed down upon the figures below. Garren stood with one leg propped up on the lip, his long black cloak flapping in the wind. He had loose black pants and no shirt, rather his chest was wrapped in strips of bandages. He grinned down at the antics of those below him and crossed his arms.

"Heh, looks like the tide is beginning to turn for us." He chuckled, "This is going even better than he planned."

"And who is he?"

Garren felt the sharp tip of a sword tip poking him in the back. "Is that you, OConall? I was wondering where you had disappeared too. Have you been following me this whole time?"

"Azman thought there was a spy in the village, one not even the inquisition could dig up. You were the only one who fit the bill." The sharp tip pressed deeper into his back. "Now talk. You know something about what's been going on here. Who is the one behind it all?"

"Like I would tell you." Garren slipped his hand under the bandages and extracted one of the many explosive tags he had hidden there. "Besides, aren't you going to let me go with a warning? How do you always put it… 'Everybody gets one'?"

"None for you." OConall said, pulling the sword back. "Howl, Yonega Waya!"

Garren spun, the ignited tag spitting a tail of sparks in the air, but he was too slow. The sword, now split down the middle like a sharp tuning fork, got him right in the chest as he came fully around. There was a sound like a deep bell tolling and the air around the wall rippled as if seen through a heat wave. The two stood frozen in place as the sound faded into nothingness, the tag clenched in Garren's grip having been extinguished by an unseen wind. Garren's face was locked in an expression of puzzlement, tiny streams of blood leaking from his ears and the corners of his eyes.

Then OConall jerked back his sword and Garren teetered, slumping back and over the edge. Dust and sand slid off him in waves as he plummeted to the ground below. OConall stepped up to the ledge to watch his descent, standing much like Garren had a moment ago.

The wind whipped his fur laden cloak about his shoulders as he peered at the scene below. He slowly raised his sword and prepared to strike it upon the stone of the wall. One blow would shatter a great chunk of it and sent the debris raining down on the invaders. But a familiar figure walking out of the tree line caught his eye at the last minute and halted his swing. He considered the situation anew and lowered his arm, allowing it to relax back to its dormant state. He sat down cross-legged and waited to see if his assistance would be needed after all.

Kakashi groaned and opened his eye. Above him, Ino gave a relieved sigh and pulled her hands back, allowing the healing jutsu to dissipate. "Finally, I was starting to run low on chakra."

Slowly, Kakashi raised himself to his elbows and mentally checked himself over. Exhausted, but whole. No major injuries that haven't been healed. Although one second more and I wouldn't have stopped that shuriken in time.

"What happened after I passed out?" he asked as Ino placed a hand on his shoulder to hold him steady.

"Everyone was knocked out except for me." She said, helping him carefully to his feet. "He had me at his mercy, but something stopped him before he could kill me. He took off running back towards the village without giving us a second glance. I healed Sakura first and the two of us have been tending to you and the others. Choji wasn't hurt too badly, but Neji…"

Kakashi allowed her arm to fall away and turned to where Choji and Sakura were crouching at the other end of the small clearing. Sakura was passing her hands over Neji's chest, pouring healing energies into him. His clothing was in tatters, ripped with so many holes that it was hardly holding together anymore. Kakashi noted scars through the tears all over his body. Sakura wiped the sweat from her brow as he approached and stood up.

"How is he?" Kakashi asked.

"I've managed to close all the wounds." She answered. "But he's lost a lot of blood. He needs time to rest and recover."

"There's no time for that." Neji said, his calm voice at odds with his ragged appearance. "Choji, help me up."

"No, you can't! You're in no shape to go anywhere!" Sakura said, spinning around and staring intently down at him.

Neji met her glare without flinching. "You need my eyes. I'm the only one who can help you avoid any more traps Daga may have left for us." He turned his gaze to Kakashi, his sheer determination clear upon his face.

Between the two of them, Kakashi looked away first. "Choji, carry him. We need to move fast."

"But…!" Ino started, grabbing his arm.

"The others don't know what he can do." Kakashi interrupted. "We have to get this intelligence to them as soon as possible, and the fastest way is to avoid falling into any more ambushes. There's a good chance that Daga is trying to intercept the others as we speak."

No one looked very happy with his logic, but there were no further arguments as Choji bent down and helped Neji onto his back. Within moments they were off, following closely to the trail the Demons nin had left.

The stream continued to pour from the hole in the ground at a furious pace. The rest of the battlefield had settled into relative calmness and a few wild birds had returned to perch on the new wooden structures dotting the clearing. The sounds of fighting in other parts of the forest occasionally punctuated the calm, but the battle had moved far away from this place. The only real change that made this moment more important than the rest was that the stone lining the water-filled crater had finally cooled down enough to become solid again.

Starting as a small blip here and there, a sudden flurry of bubbles boiled about the surface to the pool at the base of the hole. The swath of bubbles moved from the center of the pool to the edge, becoming more violent the closer they got. Suddenly, a hand shot out from the water with a hiss and clamped onto a crack in the stone. Heat radiated from the limb with such intensity that the water was instantly evaporating an inch above the skin.

With agonizing slowness Redfire pulled himself from the water onto dry land. He paused as soon as he was clear from the pool and allowed his aura to dim slightly. His skin was baked and sunburned, and his tattoos burned so bright it was hard to look at. Slowly, he reached into a pocket on the inner lining of his coat and pulled out something rapped in tinfoil. He peeled the wrapping back and took a large bite, lifting himself higher along the sloped wall with his other hand.

If nothing else, baking down there was a good way to heat up TACOS…