Chapter 11
Akira's Point Of View
"Tenten! Ino! Protect Hitomi and Minoru! Get ready for a fight." Immediately the two girls leapt over to the elderly couple, pulling out their weapons. I sent a kunai flying into the trees and was rewarded with a rustle as someone dodged, allowing me to pinpoint their location. However I wasn't able to do much about it since five men dropped to the ground around me. One stood taller than the rest and stepped forward. He had long purple hair and a scar running from his cheek to his chin on one side, his eyes beady and narrow and nose thin and pointed. The pristine state of his clothes and the regal posture with which he held himself immediately clued me in that he was not some ordinary bandit. A quick glance around me revealed that the rest, on the other hand, were. Curious.
"Who are you, then?" I asked the man, hands at the ready to reach for my swords.
"I am Keisuke. I have no quarrel with you."
I snorted. "Kind of proved that wrong when you threw a kunai at my subordinate."
"I apologize for that. One of the men in my charge got hasty."
"If you don't want to fight, what do you want?"
"I want them." He raised a finger to point at the old couple I was escorting.
My eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"That is none of your concern. Simply hand them over and we will be on our way."
"Not going to happen."
"Very well," the man looked almost convincingly regretful, "You will all die."
I drew my swords. "Challenge accepted." All four of the other bandits came at me at once and I slashed my sword through the air, sending a gust of wind at one then kicking another with enough force to send him flying. With that taken care of, I turned my attention to the other two. One came at me with a mace, forcing me to dodge and spin right into the reach of the other's ax. Luckily I was able to block with the sword but then I had a man coming at me from either direction. I grinned. Idiots. As soon as they got close enough I leapt into the air, catching them completely off guard and as I distracted them by hovering in midair supported by a current of wind they ran straight into each other. I looked down to see a lone bandit sneaking up behind Tenten who was doing battle with two men at once. At once I dropped down and took him out with a good slice to the stomach just as the young girl was finishing with her men. She turned to me, panting, and nodded her thanks. I winked at her and leapt back into the fray.
The amount of bandits the man Keisuke had under his control was seemingly endless and being the one bearing the brunt of the attack I was exhausted by the end of it. By then I had sunk so deeply into battle mode that I didn't even notice the man before me was the last until I sent him flying into the forest. I straightened, breathing heavily, and faced the man in charge of all of them. His hands raised and he began to clap slowly.
"Very impressive," Keisuke congratulated me, "I was doubtful at first whether you'd be able to uphold the standards of the Leaf Village but you proved yourself quite well."
"Does that mean you're giving up?"
"Not a chance." His hands flashed through symbols before he spoke, "Earth release: Double suicide decapitation." Two screams sounded out behind me and I turned to see Tenten and Ino with only their heads sticking out of the ground and then out of the earth before them leapt a second Keisuke. I swore. He must have gotten under them some time during the battle when we were all distracted. But that means…I threw a shuriken at the man with whom I'd been conversing, increasing its speed with a bit of wind jutsu and it struck solidly. He dissolved into crumbling rock.
"A stone clone," I nodded, "Very good. So you're from the Hidden Rock Village?"
His eyes narrowed. "That is none of your business."
"Ooh, struck a nerve, huh? What does the Hidden Rock want with a couple of bickering old people?"
"I am not connected to the Hidden Rock," Keisuke snapped.
"The fact that you protest so emphatically makes me think otherwise." In response the man growled and began forming more hand signs.
"You are going to die, girl. Earth release: Mud river." Immediately my feet began to slide beneath me and I looked down to see the ground had turned to slippery mud, pulling me to the side with a slight current. Keisuke charged towards me, kunai drawn, and I made to leap aside but one foot stuck as the other slipped and it was pure luck that I avoided the attack as much as I did by falling on my face. However I was rewarded with a serious gash to my upper left arm.
"Damnit," I muttered, fighting to push myself back to my feet but the man came back, forcing me to roll out of the way. Luckily I was far enough to be on solid ground again and recovered enough to stand, only to find that he was nowhere to be seen. My eyes widened in realization and I jumped into the air as he exploded from the ground beneath me. Unfortunately the added weight of all the mud had caused me to miscalculate and his eyes lit up as his hand closed around my ankle, swinging me around and throwing me through the trees with such force that I rolled to a stop beside a river a hundred feet away. Alright, so depending on wind jutsu wasn't going so well. I pushed myself upright, wincing as my arm was agitated, and faced the purple haired man who was emerging from the trees.
"You are weak," he scorned, "You are a pathetic excuse for a shinobi."
"Please," I begged, stumbling backwards onto the river, "You don't have to kill me. You can take the old people, just let me be!"
Keisuke grinned cruelly. "I think not. You know more than you should now, so I'm afraid I'm forced to silence you. Permanently." He steadfastly walked forward until we were facing off on the water. I fell to my knees, hands planted on the wet surface below me.
"Can't you just let us go?"
He laughed maliciously. "Even if I could, I wouldn't. It's too much fun to watch weak people like you die." Well, there went his last chance. I gathered chakra in my hands, smiling to myself.
"Lightning style: Electric current," I whispered, then watched as sparks darted through the water towards my opponent. He never saw it coming and the electricity hit him brutally hard, causing him to convulse in the air before dropping into the water with a splash, completely unconscious.
"That takes care of you," I said casually, standing up and brushing my hands off. I picked up his limp body and slung him over my shoulder to carry back to the others, tying his hands and legs tightly together.
"You did it!" Ino looked incredulous from where her head was sticking out of the ground and I frowned.
"Well you don't have to sound so surprised about it. I am a Jounin, after all."
"But wind jutsu is so ineffective against earth!" Tenten exclaimed, "That's incredible!"
I snorted. "If I'd have stuck to wind jutsu I'd have been creamed. That's not the only style I know." As proof I gathered my chakra again and manipulated the earth around the two girls so it began to churn, slowly pushing them further towards the surface. As they stumbled into the open air, gasping, I turned to the old couple we were escorting.
"I think the two of you had better explain, now."
Old woman Hitomi sighed deeply. "Very well. We – " Out of nowhere her body jerked, her back arching and she fell to the ground, seizing.
"Hitomi!" Her husband cried out, falling to his knees at her side before he himself began to have the same reaction.
"Old man Minoru!" Ino shouted, running to his side. What the hell? Was all I could think as I knelt between the two. "What do we do?" The blonde girl demanded, looking at me pleadingly.
"I – I don't know, I know nothing about medical Ninjutsu, I know nothing about medical anything…" Foam began to pour out of the two's mouths and their eyes rolled back in their heads as they continued to jerk. Then, finally, they both lay still. The three of us from the Leaf could only stare. What had just happened? I looked up just to see a grinning head in the shadows vanish into the ground. I cursed, running towards the spot and finding only a long, thin tube laying on the ground. Whoever had been there had vanished. Slipping the tube into my pack I made my way back to the others.
"Poisoned," I stated, "I'm guessing someone shot a poisoned needle at the two." I mentally kicked myself for having not sensed the presence and done something to prevent the situation.
"There's nothing you could have done," Tenten tried to console me but I ignored her, kneeling beside the old couple's heads. Gently I put my hands over their eyes and closed them.
"Sleep peacefully," I murmured, and each of us carrying an immobile body we set off back towards the Hidden Leaf Village, the heavy weight of a failed mission weighing on our shoulders.