Don't Fear The Reaper
~Chapter 10~
Rumble in The Jungle Part 2: Poison
In case you have not noticed I have changed the name of the story. You will not need to re-read said story or anything like that. I have changed the name and very insignificant parts of the story in order to make it more suitable to the future plot. The plot has changed but it doesn't really matter cuz the plot isn't written yet!
Oh yeah and, FF has been acting up on me for the past month and I have been unable to update. Every time I tried to, an error page would pop up. It was retarded, but apparently it is fixed now. Blame FF for the slowness.
So in summary cuz I tend to ramble:
Yes the title has changed and minor parts of the story.
No you do not need to read anything again.
Not sorry for slowness because it was FF's fault. :)
Now that that is settled DISCLAIMER! (Anyone else hate writing these things?)
I don't own Naruto.
XxX
Toshi dropped to the ground, using his echo location to observe the mass of heat sitting on his shoulder. It had been a day so far out in the 'Forest of Death' and he had begun to enjoy the cat's company. Tomo had been helpful with using his sight and had remained silent except for the occasional purr of approval when Toshi was able to destroy the enemy. This forest of death was not like your average forest and the young teen was thankful for the company of Kumiko's summon. If worst came to worst he could have always summoned his own summons but...well...they had a tendency to be either obnoxious or stupid...or both.
He straightened so that he was now standing in the middle of the clearing, his head moving slowly as he used his echo location to observe the forest around him. The waves that returned to his ears merely reported the image of pearly trees, foliage and the occasional animal, but there was no real danger within a 2 mile radius.
As soon as they had split up, Toshi had headed back to the outskirts of the forest once more, not intent on waiting for someone to attack him. He wanted to make the first move and as he worked his way back through the forest he had been the one to attack first. However everyone he attacked had ended up having an Earth Scroll. He had pocketed each one, hoping to use them as bargaining chips if he happened across an enemy that he felt no need nor want to fight. Satisfied that there was no danger and wouldn't be for awhile, he shrugged his shoulders as a signal for the cat to jump off.
"What are you doing?" The cat asked in a surprisingly baritone voice as its feet made contact with the ground. Toshi stopped and swung his head in the feline's direction. That was the first time he had heard the cat speak. He was beginning to think the beast was a mute...
"I've decided that it would be better in the long run if I took this time to focus on improving my kekkei genkai. If I do, it should make the rest of this challenge much easier and it will be over in a shorter amount of time." He used his echo location and watched as Tomo wandered over to the other side of the clearing and curled up under a low hanging branch.
'Now to begin...'
XxX
"To be honest," Hiro started. "There isn't much about Toshi that he wouldn't tell you himself. He's quiet, but by no means is he shy. He is not very strategic but he does have good judgement and the ability to become a great leader. Although, he tends to sit back and enjoy the show..." He finished by pulling out a cigarette, lighting it slowly and sticking it in his mouth before offering Kakashi one. Kakashi eye smiled and respectfully declined causing the other man to shrug before pocketing the package once more. He drew in a long breath, before releasing the smoke slowly in the opposite direction of where Kakashi had been sitting, so as not to make the man uncomfortable because of the smoke.
"He's a bastard child of a clan Matriarch and some unknown ninja and somehow or another became his ill half-brother's clan heir." Kakashi looked slightly surprised for a moment.
"Strength?" Kakashi asked. Hiro looked at him for a moment before readjusting his position so he was leaning on his elbows.
"Probably second in the village, which brings me to our villages number one genin, Kumiko Hanadeka."
XxX
It had almost been two days and Toshi had been meditating while Tomo kept watch. It looked like he was doing nothing but in reality he had been honing his skills. He had removed his headband and retied it around his left shoulder so that he could focus the echo location through his eyes as well. He had been focusing the amount of chakra he had been using souly into his echo location, and zooming in on passing teams' scrolls.
Suddenly, his sightless eyes snapped open and he smiled, a foreign gesture to anyone who knew him.
Right now his mind was zoomed in on a team just in front of him, their scroll in the back pocket of the teammate on the end. And inside the Scroll?
The symbol for Heaven.
It was still kind of fuzzy and hard to make out, but it was heaven none the less. He noticed that the squad didn't have a second scroll and began to follow them at a safe distance. He frowned though when he seen that that particular group of genin had their own target. It was a group of leaf genin, among them was the girl he had spoken to before the exam. What was her name? Hinata...Hyuga...He slowed noticing for the first time that Tomo was with him and he stopped ready to watch the confrontation with his echo location. The glowing figures of Hinata and her team, a boy with some kind of animal...a dog, no a puppy, inside his jacket and a taller male.
He zoomed in, noticing the fuzzy lettering of an earth scroll in Hinata's coat. The ninja Toshi had been tailing ambushed them and he realized they were grass ninja, with their swift movements and earth style jutsu.
At first Hinata's team faired fine exchanging blows with equal strength and using ruthless strategy to avoid the older genin's stronger attacks. He watched with mild interest as Hinata's white, glassy image begun some form of graceful fighting dance. Her palms lashing out with amazing speed and damaging her enemies chakra system using pressure points. Yes all went perfectly fine, until the taller of her teammates became incapacitated.
After his battalion of insects stopped his opponent got free and went after Hinata, obviously realizing that she had the scroll. The boy and the dog attacked as well with some form of move that sent them hurtling towards their enemy at a vicious pace. However one of the grass ninja had a different idea and made a huge rock wall causing the dynamic duo to hit it and become knocked unconscious.
Toshi almost sweat dropped.
They were very good as a team but once one of them was out the other two lost strategy and were unable to take care of themselves and each other. He heard Hinata cry out and made a decision. God dammit! He was going to regret this later on but right now he didn't care.
"Tomo, I'm going down there! Let me know if I attract any unwanted attention, okay?" His he heard the faint movement of bones as the cat nodded beside him. Then he bit his thumb, made a few hand signals.
Two shadowy figures appeared beside him. (Any idea what Toshi's summoning contract is? Hm?)
"I want you to remove the two enemies on the right and left from the area, then I want them destroyed." He told them, leaning forward so he looked like he was about to jump down, his eyes still trained on the guys beating up Hinata. "Why am I doing this? ...For the scroll obviously. What other reason is there." The two human sized shadows swooped down from the tree and he picked up the white shapes of the enemy ninja's being picked up and carried off.
"What the-" He heard the remaining ninja explain, holding a beat up Hinata by her coat.
"Earth style: Mud Claw Jutsu!" Toshi said as he sped towards the grass ninja, feeling the familiar, unbreakable clay forming on his hands. He sliced the guy across the back causing him to drop the leaf Kunoichi in pain.
(Hinata P.O.V it gets annoying not being able to say what stuff looks like. Writing blind people is hard!)
After she fell Hinata tried hard to recover and stand up, but her body screamed in protest and all she could manage was to prop herself up using her arms. She raised her eyes, trying to locate her saviour in all the fuzziness.
Maybe it was Kiba...but Earth Style wasn't Kiba's thing...
Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw someone she hadn't expected to see ever again. His silver hair, foggy steel blue eyes and tan skin...It was the guy from before the second part had begun...Toshi. Hinata had found herself unable to stop thinking about him, the times when her mind were usually occupied with Naruto she found occupied with him.
She was not stupid, she had realized right away that he was her knew crush. She hadn't thought anyone could ever replace or replicate the way she felt about Naruto. She liked Naruto because he was loud and confident. However whenever she was near Naruto she also felt slightly inadequate, because she was not even confident enough to talk to him. He was so different from her, and she felt like she should be that way. When she was talking to Toshi though, a few days earlier, his subtle confidence seemed to taunt her. It said she could be strong and quiet at the same time, that she didn't have to be obnoxious like Naruto to be confident.
She felt her face burn red and her eyes widened that he was seeing her in such a ragged state and wished that they had met again on better terms...like when she was wearing a kimono or something, I don't know, clean? She watched as he sliced at the ninja, the other ninja pouncing away crying out for his teammates.
"It's no use." Toshi's strong voice taunted, "They're dead by now. My summons have eaten them. You can no longer continue the exams so hand over you're scroll and I'll spare your life." "The scroll of course..."Hinata thought with a hint of sadness. To think she actually thought he was here to save her like some stereotypical knight in shining armour.
"Y-You're bluffing!" The other guy shouted back, causing Toshi to sigh.
"I never lie. If that is what you're insinuating." The other ninja simply screamed a string of curse words before sending out several vines at Toshi who sliced through them with his claws. One managed to hit him though, causing him to fly through the air, his claws becoming mud once more leaving Toshi defenceless. Hinata braced herself, expecting him to hit one of the trees, but she never heard a sound.
Opening her eyes once more she found that Toshi had twisted his body in mid air and landed in a slight crouching position, one of his arms behind him bracing himself against a tree for balance. Hinata watched as he reached to his back and pulled forth a katana, which she hadn't noticed he had until this time. Toshi straightened, placing the sword in front of him in a defensive position as the other genin ran forward ready to attack with kunai in his hands.
"Hm. Idiot." Toshi said smirking, lashing out with his sword and cutting the guy across the chest. He fell to the forest floor, clutching the wound which seemed to ooze purple liquid and sizzle.
"I-I can't m-move. What did you do?" The guy shouted.
"You should have been more sensible and accepted my offer. I'm a poison specialist and my katana is filled with a serum that disintegrates anything it touches. It will burn your body slowly like a match to a piece of paper until there is nothing but unrecognizable remains left." The guy began to cry. "M-make it stop! K-kill me please! It hurts!" Hinata watched Toshi's reaction with fear, would he really be so cruel as to let a person die that way.
"Lucky for you," Toshi began "I've never really liked the way this katana works. So I was planning on such anyway." Hinata closed her eyes as she seen Toshi whip out a kunai and then heard the faint sound of Toshi slicing through the enemy ninja's throat.
"Hey you." Hinata stiffened and opened her eyes to see Toshi's boots standing in front of her. "Get up." Hinata scrambled to do so, noticing it was much easier since the first time she had tried. "Here." He said sliding something into her hand and her eyes widened as she realized what it was. She looked up at him with wide eyes and mouth a gape, a blush burning hot on her face.
"You need one right? So there." He turned to leave but Hinata grabbed his arm and she got even redder, if that was possible.
XxX
Toshi looked at her glassy, pearl white form attached to his arm. Obviously embarrassed she took a step back and appeared to be pressing two of her fingers together. "What is she doing?" He thought.
"U-Um. I..." She faltered, taking a deep breath. "I know you are an enemy ninja but it would not be smart for me to tend to my teammates out here in the open...I..." she faltered again and Toshi raised an eyebrow. "Can you please help me take my teammates somewhere safe so I can tend to them?" Toshi just stood there, his sightless eyes raking over her. Without a word he walked past her, his face feeling slightly hot as he picked up the two smaller boys that were her teammates and threw them over his shoulders.
"Am I...blushing?" He asked himself in disbelief. "Get the dog." He ordered gruffly over his shoulder. He watched with his echo location as she jumped at his voice but ran to pick up the puppy. He could tell she was avoiding him with her eyes, staring off in a random direction.
"Tomo!" Toshi called out, and the cat's figure appeared in front of him. "Find shelter big enough for us."
"U-Us? You will be staying?" He heard her voice waver as the cat ran off.
"For the night. I will leave by morning, before your teammates wake up."
XxX
Thunder and lightening. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse.
He stood at the mouth of the cave Tomo had found, leaning lazily against a wall. He analyzed the traps that Hinata had set, quite impressed at how well hidden they were. In this weather no one would find them and by morning when the traps were more visible her teammates would be awake, then the 3 of them could head to the tower.
"For now, she's stuck in a cave with two unconscious teammates and a strange enemy ninja." "I'm not sure whether you're brave or stupid." Oops. Did he say that out loud?
He heard her shuffle on the dirt surface and he snapped his head in her direction sending out his E.L (much easier then echo location). Next to the bodies of her comrades she sat with her head buried in her knees. He stares at the white glassy figure for awhile before sighing.
"I-...If it makes you feel any better...I was leaning more towards brave in my analysis." He said, only to be tackled a second later by her. He tensed at first. Was she attacking him? No she wasn't...she was...hugging him.
"Thank you so much..." She exclaimed as he glanced down at the figure clinging to him. Wow. Not that he didn't have his fangirls but no one had ever really hugged him before. He kinda liked it...
"Toshi-sama!"
"Aw damn cat has to ruin everything."
XxX (Hinata!...-_-' What're you looking at?)
"Why am I hugging him? He probably thinks I'm crazy! He already said it was a possibility I was an idiot but...but he also said I was...brave! No one's ever called me brave!"
"Toshi-sama!" She heard the cat before she seen him, the large animal appearing in front of the two. Embarrassed, Hinata quickly retreated back to where her unconscious teammates were watching the two from afar. "So much for being brave..."
"Toshi-sama. My Brother Yomo has just informed me that Kyoia-sama has obtained a scroll although she is currently immobile. We must hurry at once before trouble arises for her and we lose the scroll. Kumiko-hime is being informed as we speak." She watched as the silver haired boy nodded before turning his head in her direction, his foggy steel blue eyes non moving and emotionless.
"I'm afraid I'll have to leave sooner than planned." Then he bit his thumb and slammed it to the ground, affectively summoning a vampire bat.
"Hiya Toshi-kun! Wats up? Ooh! Who's this?" Suddenly the bat was standing on her head causing her to freak out slightly.
"Is she your..." He stuck up a little bat pinky in the sign for girlfriend and Hinata blushed wildly. She couldn't exactly see through the dim but she thought there was a faint pink glow to his face. Toshi cleared his throat.
"No, and shut up Machi-Machi. I have no time to listen to you. I need you to stay here until dawn and then return to your world, Hinata needs a look out while she tends to her teammates."
"Ohohoho~ Okie-dokie there boss!" The bat laughed. Toshi walked outside into the rain with a backwards wave.
"See you later. Hinata-chan."
