Chapter 11 - Mutsuki Baikoku
Tayuya stared at the figure that had come into view. She had no idea who he was, but she had also recognized his voice. She searched her memory for where she might have met someone matching this man, but despite recognizing the sound of his voice, her memory yielded no results. She figured she would remember an individual as unique as this man, but could not find him in her mental database. His medium-length spiky hair was bright orange, and decorated with blue and black streaks throughout. He was also heterochromic, his left eye was a bright yellow color, while his right was green.
"M-Mutsuki..." Oshime muttered, looking nervous.
"Mutsuki?" Tayuya thought to herself, "I've heard that name somewhere recently..."
"I see you remember me, Oshime...Shiruba, was it?" Mutsuki stated, a wicked smirk plastered on his face, "It's funny, I remember you as Oshime Enshoku. Odd how things change, isn't it?"
Tayuya was confused, but the look on Oshime's face told her that what he was saying was having an effect on her. The name "Mutsuki" reverberated throughout Tayuya's mind, before she eventually remembered where she had heard the name before.
"Back at the...Kagekage's manor..." Tayuya wheezed, "You...you're...the Kagekage's...assistant..."
"Ah yes, Tayuya, was it?" Mutsuki asked, "I remember you, but I see you've had a bit of bad luck since we last met."
"I'm more...than able...to kick your ass...Ugly" Tayuya said, a slight smirk on her face.
"Ugly? How rude of you." Mutsuki mocked, "A proper person would refer to me as Mutsuki, or perhaps even Mr. Baikoku."
"Well...I'm not proper..." Tayuya stated, "So fuck off..."
Oshime spent the entirety of the exchange staring directly at Mutsuki, quivering slightly.
"M-Mutsuki..." She muttered once again, "Y-you're joking, right? You can't be trying to steal the stone from us!"
"He works for...the Kagekage..." Tayuya muttered, "Of course...he's trying to get it back..."
Oshime ignored her, but Tayuya saw Mutsuki make a large grin at her words.
"Yeah, that must be it..." He replied, laughing a bit.
"Sorry for this, Tayuya" Oshime stated, calmly.
She slowly released her and her cloak's hold on Tayuya and gently laid her in a sitting position against the tree. Tayuya winced at the pains across her body, and followed that by shivering in the cool air. Oshime removed her cloak, and draped it across Tayuya's body as an impromptu blanket. Oshime stood up, and drew her sword, facing Mutsuki the entire time.
"Ah, yes, Sui-Riu." Mutsuki stated, "This will be fun."
"You're not stealing the stone from us!" Oshime said confidently, despite the fact that she was still shaking slightly.
Mutsuki said nothing, but pulled two gold kunai from his pouch, one in each hand. Oshime held her sword in her usual stance, staring intently at Mutsuki.
"Kunai Oblivion!" Mutsuki shouted, holding out the two kunai.
Without warning, the two kunai fused together, and regular kunai began launching out of the odd fusion. Oshime tried to slash them all out of the air, but her tired, weakened condition had an effect on her speed and reflexes. She took a few scratches, but luckily for her, none of the kunai she missed managed to do more than graze her. Tayuya wanted to help, but she knew that there was nothing that she could do in her much weakened state.
"You'll have to do better than that!" Oshime shouted, belying her fear.
"Give me the stone, and we won't have to do this" Mutsuki stated, "It'll save you from a quick death..."
"I'm not giving up the stone." Oshime replied, not changing her stance.
Mutsuki said nothing, and merely unfused the two gold kunai, holding them up.
"Kunai Weapon Transformation" He stated rather calmly.
The two kunai began to glow with a teal aura, as they began to grow and morph. Both Tayuya and Oshime watched as the gold weapons changed shape, the handle of the knife disappearing as the weapon took on the shape of a blade. The small loop on the bottom of each grew to about five inches in diameter, and a bar grew in the center, like a handle across the diameter of the loop. The two gold kunai quickly finished their transformation, leaving one three feet blade, and the other a four foot blade, each attached to their respective loops at their bottoms, still surrounded by the teal aura. Mutsuki grabbed the handle between each loop, and began to spin the blades. It appeared that the handle and loop was a type of pivot, because the blades quickly spun around, despite Mutsuki's hand holding the stationary handle. The blades spun quite quickly, the gold and teal blurs belying the terror the weapons could inflict.
"I call them the short one 'Zeit Stunde'" He stated, holding up the spinning blade in his left hand, "The right one is 'Zeit Minute'. Catchy, no?"
Tayuya was fearful for Oshime, wondering how she planned to counter the two blades with just her sword. Oshime held her weapon, preparing for her next move. Mutsuki took this chance to charge at Oshime, swinging his left hand towards her. Oshime held out her sword to block, but after a loud clanging sound, Sui-Riu, along with Oshime's arm, were knocked to the ground. Oshime jumped back before he had a chance to hit her with the blade, making sure not to lose her sword in the process.
"Bladed Dragon Edge!" Oshime shouted, as the etching on her blade began to glow.
Mutsuki watched the jutsu take its course, Sui-Riu's blade growing to its usual proportions.
"Well, it's about time you got serious." Mutsuki stated, another cruel smirk on his face.
"I'm not letting you get the stone!" Oshime responded.
Naruto was leading the pack through the forest, looking in all directions for any signs of the two girls. Shikamaru and Sakura stayed behind Naruto, following his twists and turns as he ran. After over an hour with no results, the trio took a short break to catch their breath.
"We have to find them!" Naruto shouted, "Before they escape!"
"Naruto, stop shouting" Shikamaru said, "If they hear us, they'll know where we are and that we're coming for them"
"Idiot..." Sakura mumbled, pounding his head.
Naruto rubbed his head lump, glaring at Sakura for the unneeded violence.
"So what do we do, Shikamaru?" Sakura asked, "Do we just keep looking like this?"
"We have no choice," Shikamaru responded, "We have no other way to track them."
"Actually, maybe we do!" Naruto stated, beaming.
Before either of the two had a chance to question his statement, Naruto had bitten his thumb, and performed a series of handsigns. He threw his arm to the ground, and a small puff of smoke came from the spot he hit. After the smoke cleared, a knee-high red toad wearing goggles was standing where Naruto had hit.
"Heya, this is Gamasousa" The toad said, "Who summoned me, and what do you want?"
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto replied, "That perverted sage told me that you're the best toad for the job I want."
"You know Jiraiya?" Gamasousa questioned, "Wait, are you that kid that the Boss is always making fun of?"
"No, you must be thinking of someone else..." Naruto mumbled.
"Yeah, yeah, I remember the Boss calling him 'Naruto' sometimes, instead of 'runt'" Gamasousa replied, "Course I'll help someone that the Boss has helped. What'd'ya need?"
"That old pervert told me that you're the best tracking toad around" Naruto replied, "I need you to help us track two people."
"Sure, sure, no problem" The toad replied, "What'd'ya got for me to track them with?"
"Huh?" Naruto asked.
"I can't just find people, kid" Gamasousa answered, "I need something of theirs so I can track their signature."
"You follow their scent?" Naruto replied.
"I'm a toad kid, not a wolf." He responded, "Since when have you known toads to have a good sense of smell? I follow people based on their chakra signatures."
"Oh..." Naruto responded, feeling his plan fall apart more and more as the seconds passed, "Wait, us and them are probably the only ones in the forest, so can't you just follow the only two chakra signatures not here with us?"
"Sorry, kid, but all living things use chakra," Gamasousa stated, "Those two signatures you want are one in thousands out here, with all the trees and critters. So, I guess this was a pointless trip for me. Well, I'll be seeing ya, kid."
"Here, try this" Shikamaru stated, removing his chuunin vest before Gamasousa had a chance to reverse summon himself.
"Hmm, what's that?" The toad asked, looking at it.
"One of the two attacked me, and the attack hit the vest directly," Shikamaru responded, "There should be something on it that you can use."
"I already told you kids, I don't track by smell" He said, "Ugh, you humans sometimes..."
"I know that," Shikamaru responded, "She attacked by using her chakra to create a blast of compressed air. It hit me on the chest, so their may be something you can use on the vest. It's thick enough that my own signature might not have affected it."
"Hey, smart thinking kid" Gamasousa said, hopping over to Shikamaru, "I guess all humans aren't like Naruto over there"
"Thankfully..." Sakura muttered.
Gamasousa took the vest out of Shikamaru's hands, and began sniffing it.
"Hmm, yeah, I think got something" He said, "And it ain't you, kid, so it must be the one you're looking for"
Gamasousa looked up from the vest, and began looking around the forest.
"This way!" He said, hopping in the direction he was facing.
All three followed him, hoping he had the correct signature.
Mutsuki held onto his two spinning weapons, smirking as Oshime's blade dragon hovered in the air in front of him.
"Hmm, not bad, not bad" Mutsuki stated, "But not good enough."
Mutsuki watched as the dragon launched at him, using both Zeit Stunde and Zeit Minute to hold it off. Oshime struggled to try to hit him with it, but his spinning blades were just too effective. As the dragon pulled back, Mutsuki jumped back from his location.
"Is that all that eyesore can do?" He mockingly asked, "My turn, now."
He held up the spinning blade on the left, aiming it so the plane of rotation was facing Oshime.
"Zephyr Maelstrom!" He shouted, the aura on his weapon becoming brighter.
As Oshime watched, a spiraling column of air released quickly from the weapon, heading for her. She no way to dodge the cyclone, since it had a radius of at least three feet, and was moving fast. Her dragon did little to the column as it plowed towards her, not large enough to take it completely head on. Oshime felt the column hit where she was, making it near impossible for her to focus on her target. It took all the strength she had to not get knocked off of her feet. The wind was strong enough to make her dragon shaky and much harder to control.
"That's just a taste of what I can do." Mutsuki stated, as the cyclone around her died down.
Oshime grimaced, but quickly launched her dragon at him. Instead of just trying to hit him with it as before, she held it in front of him, and quickly added a bit of chakra to her blade. The dragon's face turned red, and quickly shot out a burst of flame at Mutsuki. He looked surprised for a second, but managed to dodge it for the most part, only getting a mild burn on his shoulder.
"You won't catch me off-guard like that again!" Mutsuki threatened.
Oshime knew that now that Mutsuki knew of the potential for fire, it would be much harder to hit him with it. That, combined with her already low chakra, meant that this would be a hard battle to win.
"Jiten!" Mutsuki shouted, catching Oshime off-guard.
After he shouted, he threw his blades at the ground, and watched as they shot towards Oshime, ripping through the ground like buzzsaws. Oshime jumped to the side of the linear saws, impressed by their speed. Mutsuki took his two hands, and moved them sharply to the side, in the same direction Oshime had dived. As he did, both blades quickly turned towards Oshime and ripped towards her. Oshime jumped out of the way again, but was surprised to see the two blades keep their course. She took that opportunity to launch her dragon at the unarmed Mutsuki, but stopped when it dawned on her why the two weapons had not followed her.
"They weren't going after me at all!" Oshime thought to herself, the grin on Mutsuki's face confirming her theory.
She turned towards where the blades her heading, and saw Tayuya sitting against the tree, her eyes wide in surprise. Tayuya tried to sit up, but her damaged body made it impossible to dodge. Oshime knew she was too far away to reach her in time, and her dragon was not fast enough. Oshime quickly pulled her dragon back in, reverting Sui-Riu to its usual blade.
"Temporal Eternity!" Oshime shouted loudly, as the radius expanded from her glowing sword.
Oshime used all her willpower to increase the radius as far as she could, eventually reaching far enough to encompass Tayuya and the blades. She saw a scowl on Mutsuki's slowed-down face, and used her unaffected speed to run towards Tayuya. Even with the slowdown, she was far enough away that she was not sure if she would make it. Oshime grabbed Tayuya and the cloak off of the tree, and dived away from the blades. Both tumbled, Tayuya shouting out in slow-motion from the pain of tumbling, increased due her damaged body and the speed Oshime had hit her, comparatively. The cloak was knocked in front of the blades, getting shredded by them quickly. As the cloak was demolished, the small black stone tumbled to the ground. Oshime was too tired to keep the jutsu going, seeing time returning to its usual speed. This time, there was no way for her to dodge the blades, and grimaced as they approached. Surprisingly, both blades stopped their forward motion, although they continued spinning in place. Before Oshime or Tayuya could question this, Mutsuki stood in front of the weapons, picking them up off the ground.
"Thanks for the stone" Mutsuki said, smirking, "I appreciate it..."
Oshime gasped as he picked the stone off of the ground, holding it in his hand.