Author's Note

Alright, it's time! Finally, a bit of action to go in the story. And definitely not like that water balloon fight chapter. I did have to think long and hard about how to best pull it off, but I finally found a way that I liked, and I hope others do as well!

Without further ado, let's get into this!

Chapter 10: Mistress of the Winds

"Alright, what the fuck are we supposed to do now?" Tayuya asked, the small group gathered in the underground lab looking to her.

"We fight him of course! I'll never go down without a fight!" Kidomaru shouted, the others glancing at him. "What?"

"He has poison that will hurt us for using chakra and can turn himself to gas. If you have any ideas how to fight him, then go ahead and tell us." Kabuto said. Kidomaru just sighed, crossing is top arms.

"Orochimaru, surely you have some sort of secret passage way around here." Jiraiya said, getting a shake from the other sannin's head.

"This hideout is one of the newest. Besides, I may plan ahead, but a secret route out of a fairly well hidden base wouldn't be at the top of my list. You wouldn't even know where to look if it were for the girl." He said before Neji got the others' attention.

"Well, you might want to think of a plan faster, he's almost here." He said, Byakugan blazing, staring towards the only way in and out. No one said anything for a moment before Jirobo stood up.

"Kidomaru. Sakon. Ukon. Our turn." He said, the mentioned others standing up, Sakon and Ukon splitting into two bodies.

"What are you numbskulls think you're going to do?" Tayuya asked, raising one eyebrow.

"We'll trap him down here and let the rest of you escape." He stated, cracking his knuckles and his neck. "The Four Violet Flames Formation should keep him trapped as long as one of the four of us still have chakra." Tayuya widened her eyes. In theory, they could still perform it as Sakon and Ukon both were separate people, but…

"As soon as one of you breaks the formation, then you'll all die for sure!" She says, one of the twins rolling his eyes. "What do you care, traitor? We don't need you anymore. Besides, our objective is to protect Lord Orochimaru, no matter the cost."

As he said that, they could hear the sound of someone making their way towards them. Immediately the remaining Sound Four spread out around the room, Kidomaru being the closest.

"As soon as the barrier is up, go! There's no telling how long we can hold him." He shouted, him and the others going through the hand signs before placing their hands on the floor, the purple box forming in the center of the room. Just in time, too, as they could now see the one who was after them.

He was bald, wearing no shirt or any footwear, the only visible piece of cloth being a beige pair of pants. His skin was fairly tanned, and his body was very muscular. The biggest part that stood out about him, however, was the array of tattoos all over the left side of his body, from his head all the way to his foot, all the word 'death' but in different languages.

"What are we waiting for, let's get out of here!" Orochimaru yelled at the others, being supported by Kabuto with one arm around the other's shoulders. Jiraiya took the other side of him, surprisingly enough, and everyone raced out of the ruined lab to begin making their way to the exit. They didn't find any trouble on the way up, but as they approached the exit, Neji shouted out.

"Hold on! There's someone out there, but their presence is faint… no, wait, it just disappeared!" He said, the others looking to him.

"Disappeared? You mean they left?" Kina asked, Neji shaking his head.

"No… They didn't move the entire time I could sense them. But they didn't enter my blind spot, so how can this be?" He responded.

"We'll just have to be careful and watch out. If we're lucky, it's help." Jiraiya said. The rest of them nodded, advancing once they got into a defensive position. Walking outside, they took a careful look around.

"Be cautious, who knows who or what could be out here." Jiraiya stated. The group moved carefully but quickly away from the hideout, nothing out of the ordinary noticeable. After a few moments of silence, Kina tugged on Alex's sleeve to get his attention.

"Al… ex…" She got out. When he turned to her, his eyes widened, as did everyone else. Behind her was a girl who looked just barely older than her, and sticking out of Kina's side was a thin blade.

"No!" Alex yelled, throwing a punch at the girl, but she vanished before their eyes, appearing on a branch nearby, swinging her feet in the air. The blade being pulled from Kina made her fall to the ground, Alex grabbing her just before she landed. "Come on, stay with me!" He exclaimed, seeing as Kina began to go into shock, bleeding out rapidly.

"Aww, don't worry, she'll live. I was just getting bored of you so-called ninja looking around so scared. I mean, you guys make me look bad. I mean, really, why are you guys so noisy? If you weren't, I wouldn't have known you guys escape Four." She stated, making the others narrow their eyes.

"You, a ninja? You sure don't look the part. You look like some shitty, gothic Lolita-wanna be who discovered pink." Tayuya said, which to be fair was a fairly accurate description. The girl wore a typical Lolita outfit, though instead of white, there was a light pink, matching the color of her hair which was worn in twin pigtails. To further the stereotype, she carried a black and pink parasol in one hand, the tip dripping with fresh blood as she idly waved it around in the air.

"Wait, you mentioned Four. That must mean…" Itachi began, only to be cut off.

"Oops! Guess I let it slip a bit too early. But can you blame me? I've been out here for days with him. Did you know he doesn't talk at all? Of course you don't, you haven't been around him for as long as I have. I don't know why no one else joined us though. You'd think strength in numbers, right? That's the only reason I ended up here I guess. Even if he didn't like the idea, he wouldn't tell me to go away." She babbled on, practically ignoring them as she swung her legs back and forth nonchalantly. In the meantime, Alex did his best to stop Kina's bleeding, not even noticing what she was saying. Eventually, Itachi kneeled down beside him.

"I'll take care of her. I don't know medical jutsu, but this should be easy to bandage up." He stated, Alex nodding and handing her off to him, albeit shakily. Taking a deep breath, he stood up, facing the girl.

"Oh look, he's soooo caring to his little girlfriend~ Makes me sick. You should have been able to help her, you know. But you couldn't cause you're- Whoa!" She exclaimed as she dodged a kick that would have hit her, instead breaking the branch she say on. Sitting on another branch, she pouted. "Oh, come on! I'm just teasing. Wait a minute… Ooh, I know you! You're the one our leader said to kill on sight! Lucky me! But, I guess that comes with being lucky number Thirteen!" She said, Orochimaru narrowing his eyes.

"Thirteen? But there's supposed to be eleven of you!" In return, the girl just laughed.

"Eleven? That was, what, a year ago? Seems you forgot members can still come in. You were supposed to be the twentieth, but I guess as long as those others accepted, there's nineteen now. Guess we'll have to find a new Twenty…" She said with a sigh before looking back up. "Anyways, I got some killing to do. The rest of you can wait there while I take care of that." She said, hopping up to stand on the branch, opening up her parasol. Alex quickly appeared beside Jiraiya.

"Lord Jiraiya, I think it's time I stopped holding back. We don't know what she can do, and I don't think she's planning on letting me live." He said, not taking his eyes off of Thirteen, the sage raising one eyebrow.

"Are you sure? You're not alone here. We can help-" He was cut off.

"No. This is something I need to do. She's not after anyone else, plus she hurt Kina. I need to take care of this myself." He stated, Jiraiya letting out a sigh.

"Very well…" He said, reaching into his pocket and tossing him a small scroll. Alex grabbed it, biting his thumb of his other hand hard enough to draw blood. Flicking it open, he revealed a series of seals, running his thumb over the middle of them all before dropping the scroll.

"Huh, that's cute… I guess. Too bad it won't help you!" She yelled, dropping down and disappearing, only to reappear in front of him, parasol poised to strike through his chest. "Now die!" She exclaimed, only to receive a punch to her stomach that sent her flying back, hitting a tree behind her.

"Shut up. You talk too much." Alex stated. While it wasn't obvious at first, he seemed a bit different. The once warm eyes had become a chilling glare as his body had a blueish glow to it. Before anyone could say anything, he vanished similarly to how Thirteen did, reappearing where she had landed about to land another punch, only to find her gone, instead now several feet away.

"Lucky shot." She stated before running at him again. Instead of dodging the attack, he held up one hand in front of him, a large shield forming in front of him, blocking the attack. Instead of just using it as a shield, however, he broke it apart into six silver orbs, making them orbit around him.

Taking another swing at her, she dodged the punch with a smirk, only for her to receive a blow from one of the orbs. Narrowing her eyes, she jumped back, wiping a small line of blood from the corner of her mouth.

"You know, that's already more annoying than what I thought it would be." She stated, before having to dodge a hail of silver shuriken by rolling to the side. "Scratch that, a LOT more annoying." She stated, narrowing her eyes. "Guess I need to step things up as well." She says, vanishing from sight.

Alex had the shuriken return to him, reforming into six orbs, looking around for any sign of her, breathing heavily. While he had yet to be hit by her, using six orbs at once was something that he was used to. It was using up both a lot of chakra and a lot of his concentration to keep each one up.

He quickly rolled to the side, just in time to narrowly avoid Thirteen falling from above, a large wave of wind emitting from where she landed, going forward to slice several trees in half.

"Maybe I underestimated you already… but I'm not going to hold back anymore. Prepare to face the power of the Mistress of the Winds!" She exclaimed, no longer holding a parasol but a two handed sword, the blade encircled by air. Without even moving towards him, she sliced the blade in his direction, not just hitting air, but emitting another wave of wind at him, forcing him to dodge, not sure if he would be able to block it but not wanting to risk it. When he recovered, she once again was nowhere in sight.

"As silent and graceful as the breeze, but as strong and deadly as a tornado, I will tear you apart!" Her voice seemed to come from all around him before the voice was behind him, turning around and striking blindly, only to miss.

"Keep up if you want to keep your life!" She taunted, now to his side. It seemed she was even faster, or was able to use the Fourth Hokage's technique without the need for special seals, the former being most possible. The hardest part was that as he looked around, he could catch glimpses of her disappearing behind trees. It seemed he wasn't going to be able to win by his ability and strength alone.

Taking in a deep breath, he went through several handsigns, finishing by hold his hands out to either side of him. "Fire release: Blast cannon!" He shouted. However, instead of fire coming from his body, the orbs each shot out what looked to be a small fireball, but would stop in midflight before each exploded at the same time, fire engulfing the nearby trees. Thankfully the others had moved to a safer location beforehand, but he would never admit to not checking first.

With her main cover blown, quite literally, Thirteen was unable to hide. However, she was almost trembling from the blast, not expecting something like that.

"Y-you're not supposed to be this strong already! I need to report this!" She exclaimed, turning away to jump away, only to find herself stuck in place, sinking into the ground. "H-huh? Hey, this is cheating!" She yelled, noticing Jiraiya several yards away, hands on the ground. He smirked to her before looking to Alex.

"Told you that you might need some help! Now finish her off!" He yelled, Alex blinking before smiling and nodding, rushing toward the girl, struggling to get out of the ground that had turned into a swap, only to find herself impaled several times in the back.

"No… fair…" She says weakly before her body went limp. However, she didn't stay limp for long, her body glowing before vanishing into the silver kunai.

"Hmm…" Alex walked over and collected up the kunai, looking them over but not seeing anything strange. Turning them back into chakra and reabsorbing, however, quickly through him off balance as he felt a burst of strength, making him fall to one knee.

"Alex! Are you alright? What happened?" Tayuya was the first to run up to him. He looked to her and smiled.

"Oh, I'm fine. I'm not sure what that was though." He said, slowly standing up and taking a step forward, only to stumble and have the girl catch him.

"Looks like you'll need some help getting to back to the village as well." Jiraiya said, looking to where the others joined up with them. Itachi was now carrying an unconscious Kina, but her breathing was steady.

"She should be fine for now, but we still need to get back as quickly as possible. Four's still trapped in the hideout. We have no time to waste." The Uchiha stated. How they had forgotten about Four already, they wouldn't know, but with that reminder, they had to get out of there. Neji and Tayuya held Alex between them, Jiraiya helped Kabuto with Orochimaru, and Itachi continued to carry Kina.

Before they would take off, Jiraiya would summon a toad, telling it to get to Minato, wanting him to wait for them at the entrance with some medics, though made sure that the toad didn't catch sight of Orochimaru, not wanting the wrong idea to go through the blonde's head. While the journey was more difficult than the way there, the way back to Konoha still only took three hours, being able to keep pace even with three people that needed to be carried.

Arriving at the gate with no issue, they found the Hokage and the medic nin there as requested. However, when Minato caught sight of who was with them, his eyes widened. As the group walked up, Jiraiya sighed.

"Kid…" He began before the blonde held up a hand.

"I already don't believe it."

Author's Note

And that'll end this chapter off. So! Finally got some fighting in. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it. It's probably the biggest thing I need to work on, fight scenes being something I've never really tackled before, but I did have some fun writing it.

Please do leave a comment about what you did or didn't like about the chapter or story up to this point. Any and all feedback is much appreciated, but it would be better to hear how I can improve the story to help it make more sense or better to read. Nothing much else for me to say today.

Until next time!