Author's Notes: Well, I forgot to mention this last chapter, so I'm making sure to mention it this time. I now have more support in the form of a beta, Darth Feanor who' now beta'ing for me. There is much rejoicing. Also, there was much less crowbar this time from Phantom! So, now that I've gotten the all clear from two people and crowbars have been put away, here's hoping by the end of this chapter you reach a HSQ.
Enjoy!
Chapter 11: The Rescue
Kurenai slowly slipped in through a window. She had been surprised to find that the trail she had followed lead her to an old, almost crumbling, building. Her survival instincts were screaming at her. There was something wrong here, and although she hadn't quite yet figured it out yet her subconscious mind knew this was a bad idea.
If it weren't for Hinata and the blood she had found outside, she'd had retreated already.
Her feet hit the floor and the floor boards groaned under the added stress. Kurenai took a deep breath and began to mold her chakra, twisting it about her in a cloak that settled about her. She began to walk through the drafty building. The boards no longer creaked under her weight as she walked and after a few more steps, she placed her trust in her genjutsu and began to move a bit quicker.
She glanced about the room, there was nothing in it. The floorboards were rotting and there were several holes in the roof. The place looked like a solid rainfall could make the roof cave in. She glanced about as her eyes looked over the ruined boards.
Nothing here but dust; no sign of Hinata. As the thoughts ran through her mind, a panic began to grow. She took a long deep breath and went over the room one more time. After calming herself she began moving toward the door to the room. She placed her hand on the door and quickly pushed it open. She felt the hinges whine under the pressure, but her jutsu silenced them.
Stepping out of the room she quickly shut the door. The movement happened in less than a second, but no noise accompanied the rush. Her eyes quickly glanced about her new surroundings. She now stood in some lobby. It was impossible to tell from outside, but she guessed that this had once been a hotel or an inn.
A lot of rooms for them to hide in...
Quickly, she began to pace through the buildings, not bothering to open the doors to each room. She had no need to, eye trained to take in everything at a glance told her that each door she marched by where untouched. As she moved through the dusty room, something began to nag at her. She felt like she was missing something obvious.
She stopped and took a deep breath through her nose and let it out through her mouth. It did nothing to help, and only strengthened her worries. The dust in the air made breathing difficult. She tried shaking her head to clear her thoughts, and chocked the feeling up to worry. She took a step before focusing her attention on the room again.
Her eyes went past down the stairs and down toward the center of the room. The foyer had what used to be a fountain with a marble statue of a man standing on a pedestal. Most of the details on the statue were covered by the dust that coated the entire room. Still, by the straightness with which he stood and the military style vest she could tell he was a ninja. She looked at the floor and saw no foot prints. She looked about the entire room and still saw no similar signs of passage.
Maybe they had someone covering their tracks? It'd have to be a jonin then, if I can't see any signs of them coming through.
She looked behind herself and something clicked.
Where are my foot prints? Her instincts began screaming at her and she hit the floor. Two kunai flew above her and sunk deep into the wall. To her surprise, they wouldn't have killed her.
She quickly grabbed one of them to defend herself as she whirled about. To her surprise the statue had moved. The statue let out a sigh and the dust that had coated the statue flew into the air. "It would have been so much easier if you could have just fallen right there."
"Who are you?!" Kurenai said, her voice dripping with venom.
"Demanding aren't we? After all, I'm not the intruder here." Kurenai stopped her chakra flow for a half second but the statue didn't wavier. Deciding it wasn't a genjutsu she figured it must have been some other technique.
"I saw blood outside!" Kurenai said her grip tightening on her knife. "I swear if I find out you hurt my student," she let the threat trail off as she prepared to fight.
"I am legitimately sorry about that." The statue shrugged, and granite fell off the moving joints to show a blue of a uniform. He titled his head and smiled bemusedly and explained, "My students panicked."
"What about my student."
"She's alive," the man said as he ran a hand though his hair. The granite sloughed off of him like chips of paint. His face was now visible. He had a very rounded face, but beyond that it was almost completely average. Except for his one distinguishing feature: where he should have had eyes there only remained a massive scar. "Shouldn't you be worrying about yourself?"
Kurenai's eyes went wide the ground, walls, and even ceiling began to glow red with sealing arrays.
Lavender...
Kiba stopped and hit the ground and began sniffing. Akamaru landed next to him and began pushing dirt around, looking for the same scent. "You smell her buddy?" A quiet yip confirmed Kiba's suspicions. Kiba looked up to see where they had landed. In front of them loomed a building. It was well into the night, but his eyes could still see the shape of the rotting structure.
Naruto landed next to him. "What is it?" Naruto asked quietly.
"We're here. I think," Kiba said, "Kurenai's trail goes into the building in front of us. Not only that, but I can smell Hinata's scent too."
"Well let's go!" Naruto said beginning to move, but before he could move anywhere Kiba grabbed him. "What?"
"There's something else."
"What is it?"
"I think they used a jutsu to travel underground, but they came up a few feet from here, Hinata's scent just appears here."
"Yeah?" Naruto said impatiently.
"I smell something else too."
"What is it?"
"Blood."
Naruto's eyes went wide then focused. "Then let's go," Naruto said then began walking towards the building. Kiba nodded, falling in step with his teammate. A few feet away, Naruto stopped. "We spent all day yesterday breaking into a castle. How do you think we should go about this?"
Kiba smiled. "Idiot! There's only one way for the hero's to go save everyone!"
Kurenai cursed silently as she awoke again. She had lasted a while, but she was fighting on this Iwa ninja's home turf. She wondered how long they had worked on making the sealing arrays on the walls. One of the man's students must have been studying to be a seal master. There was no way her opponent himself had made them.
She noticed her opponent was sitting a few feet away in a meditative position. "She's awake," he stated, "bring in her student."
Kurenai jerked her head around as two other Iwa ninja entered the foyer with Hinata, who looked toward her teacher horrified.
The Iwa on her right wore a brown suit with a ripped collar that left three prongs of fabric behind him. His red hair stood straight up, adding another half foot to his height. His strange outfit was finished with a short black cape that was connected to the elbows of his suit. Kurenai could tell by his fluid dance like movements he was a skilled taijutsu user.
The other one on her left was a big man. His massive body was covered with a large, loose green coat with a wide upturned collar. The undershirt he was wearing underneath the coat was a pale red shirt with a high collar that was buttoned in place. Layered underneath that was another yellow robe that almost reached his feet. About his neck were a necklace with many beads on it, with various seals on them, and a long purple scarf which wrapped about his eyes before going around his neck and reaching the floor. He also wore a tall hat that didn't look like it'd stay on his head for long in a true fight.
Kurenai also observed that the big man had many scrolls hidden in his robes. She realized quickly he was the one who had inscribed the space about them with all the seals.
Kurenai was brought out of her study of the ninja when the two Iwa ninja threw Hinata at the floor. The girl cried out in pain as she hit the floor. The bigger of the two ninja looked down at Hinata, despite his eyes being covered. "How sad," he said with mock emotion as he kicked Hinata so hard she rolled over to Kurenai.
"Tenkuu! Enough! We're already in enough trouble because of your recklessness!"
The other ninja defended his partner, "Nonsense! They're Konoha! They deserve it!"
"Regardless! We currently have a cease fire with them! You better hope they are satisfied with the punishments you'll receive when we get home! Otherwise we risk war!"
Kurenai leaned over her student. "Are you okay?" she mouthed.
Her student nodded, but Kurenai could see the panic in her eyes. She looked up at Kurenai with hope in her eyes, hope Kurenai wasn't sure she could give.
This is bad, Kurenai thought looking over at the three ninja in the room. Kurenai shifted and tried to feel for her weapons. They took them, she realized, apparently she had been out of it longer than she thought. They had enough time to frisk her completely. She glanced down at Hinata, who was on the verge of crying.
I hope that Kiba and Naruto can... She looked up again and saw that the three still weren't looking over at the two women. Kurenai turned and smiled. She mouthed a single name, "Naruto."
Hinata froze for a moment, and Kurenai saw hope in her eyes again.
Please don't fail us, get help- Everyone in the room jumped as the main doors to the room burst open off their hinges. There stood two boys wearing leather jackets, one a brunette with a dog by his side, and the other a blonde.
"Where's our sensei and teammate!" the blonde demanded.
THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR? Kurenai almost screamed. WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL OUR TRAINING YESTERDAY!
Naruto looked about the room; he saw two ninja about his age standing next to a much older man who was sitting. He looked about the room. "Kurenai-sensei!"
"Hinata!"
Naruto quickly looked over the two. He saw Kurenai's white dress had been stained with blood. His eyes widened as he looked over Hinata, she looked a little better, but her hair had dried blood in it. Naruto turned toward the three ninja. "You bastards! What the hell did you do to them?"
Kiba began to run toward his teacher and his teammate, but the smaller of the two ninja, ran in between them. "Non, non, can't have you doing that!"
The sitting man groaned then stated, "True, in for a penny..."
"Kiba! Naruto! Get out of here! The entire building is filled with seals!" Kurenai warned. To her surprise Naruto laughed.
"Naruto?" Kiba said worried, looking about for the seals. "Tell me you got a plan."
"Nope."
"Then why are you laughing?"
"Team 8 specializes in property damage!"
Kurenai blinked a couple times, then sat back. She looked down at her female student who was looking at her worried. "Hinata, I think we're gonna get out of-" she was cut off as a large hand hit the back of her head and knocked her out.
"You bastard!'" Naruto screamed and charged at the larger man.
"It's sad that you don't realized how outclassed you are," the larger man said as Naruto charged him. "I will enjoy this," he said bringing his hands up in two separate hand signs. Naruto barely heard the sound of kunai being thrown, but he successfully dodged them. The two sets of kunai hit the center of two seals and disappeared. "You have good reflexes."
Naruto didn't bother responding, opting instead to charge his much larger opponent.
On the other side of the room, Kiba circled the man in front of him. The man's head titled back in forth to a tempo of a song that only he could hear. The man paused for a moment to look at Naruto as he screamed in anger.
Kiba immediately reached out to claw the man's face, but he leaned back.
"It is rude to begin a fight without introducing yourself," the man said without straightening.
Kiba just growled and swiped at the man again. The man twisted out of the way, as if he was dancing. "Kiba Inuzuka!" he growled.
"I am Taiyou," the man said. He bowed low then straightened, his body melting into the ground. "You Konoha nin are so weak, but I am a gentleman. I'll allow you to leave quietly, like a dog."
Kiba growled and stuck his hand into a pouch, fishing past the dog treats to find something he hadn't use in training with Naruto yet. "You can move through the ground; can your partner?"
"Nonsense! This is my clan's technique, I make myself one with the ground."
"So you're the one who attacked my teammate," he said flicking a small sphere toward his partner, "I'm not letting you go easy." Akamaru jumped up and ate the round ball, and his fur began to turn red.
"Ah, a solider pill."'
"Thanks for stating the obvious!" Akamaru barked once in warning and Kiba turned just in time to receive a kick to his face.
"No need to be so angry," Taiyou said putting his hands into his pockets.
Kiba rolled and put his hands together, his opponent's face twisted into a look of disgust as Kiba felt chakra pulse through him. Standing on just his legs became uncomfortable and he crouched down. He sneezed as the dust he stirred up tickled his nose. "Akamaru!" his partner obliged and jumped on his back, "Juijin bunshin!" he barked.
Akamaru shifted on his back, and Kiba felt his partner's chakra change. Kiba growled ferally, "Last chance to flee!"
"Why would a gentleman like me fear an animal?"
With that Kiba and Akamaru charged. Akamaru jumped off of Kiba's back and dove at their opponent, while Kiba went low. Taiyou twisted out of the way of both their attacks, bending back below Akamaru's diving attack, then spinning about on his feet to avoid Kiba's attacks.
"Sable dance!" Taiyou cried out at the top of his lungs as he spun about. His hands placed on an invisible woman's waist and back. The dust about them swirled up around Kiba. "A wild man such as-" anything else he would have said was cut off as Kiba dove out of the dust and clawed at Taiyou's face. The self proclaimed gentleman covered his wounds with a hand. "My face! You attacked my face!"
"I can smell you, you bastard!"
Taiyou jumped backwards avoiding another set of claws, from Akamaru. The man spun about in the air, and hit the ground with a heavy impact. "Roche Concerto!" the man intoned, causing the stones beneath Kiba and Akamaru to rise up and pulverize the two of them. The man spun about twice. "You wild beast! Platre sonata!"
Kiba looked up just in time to take blow from a massive fist made of plaster. Kiba growled, he didn't have any techniques. His and Akamaru's teamwork were great, but he didn't know any new techniques. He wished he knew the passing fang technique, but he hadn't gotten his mother's approval yet. This was going to be tough, but his opponent's blows weren't hurting too much.
Then things went to hell.
Naruto rushed his big opponent, screaming in rage. The man raised a hand in an open palm. "Zetsu." he uttered. Before Naruto knew it, something akin to an exploding tag went off next to him. Naruto flew backward, and hit the ground hard. Dust went flying everywhere obscuring everyone's vision of the fight.
Naruto flew out of the dust cloud and his opponent folded his hands. "How sorrowful," he stated as six sets of seals began to glow, "someone with a brave heart of stone like you living in such a vile place as Konoha."
Naruto dodged several sets of kunai and a stream of rock. "Shut up!" he said as he once again got close to his opponent.
"Zetsu."
Naruto went flying again, this time he rolled up and landed on his feet. "Kage bushin no jutsu!" he cried out and filled the immediate area with clones.
"Such sad attempts at a diversion will get you nowhere," the man known as Tenkuu stated. He paused for a moment. "These... these are not the normal weak clones your village produces." He raised his hands. "Air space, Metsu!" Naruto watched with growing frustration as every one of his clones was ripped apart by some unseen force. Naruto growled in frustration and charged forward.
"How sad," the man noted with a smile, "it's as if you're offering your neck!" he cried out in glee. He raised his hands together and began to form many hand signs in the blink of an eye. The room began to glow as various seals began firing stones, kunai, and shuriken at Naruto. If Naruto was in a quipping mood, he would have asked where the kitchen sink was.
As it was, Naruto was furious. He formed his favorite hand sign as he dodged the flying projectiles. "Kage bushin-" his intonation was cut short by a stone to the jaw. He skidded across the floor as stone after stone impacted against his face. He just barely heard Hinata screaming behind her gag, over the laughter of his opponent.
Naruto stood up, and wiped the blood away from his jaw. "You bastard, you think you can just push me around?"
"This space is mine, you cannot stop me."
"Then I'm just gonna have to break it!"
Kurenai heard the muffled screams coming from her side. The headache she had was almost as bad as the time she got drunk after she got showed up during her chunin exams. She focused her chakra to her brain, using a low genjutsu to fool her brain into thinking there was no pain. It wouldn't do for a genjutsu user to not be able to use her brain properly.
She opened her eyes and looked about. The situation hadn't changed much from when she was knocked out. The big genin could move faster than she'd expect from one of his size.
The smaller one, Taiyou, if she remembered the conversations earlier properly, was currently locked in a taijutsu battle with Kiba. Between Akamaru and Kiba, they were holding their own. Kurenai knew that she'd have to help Kiba quickly, despite it being two on one, their opponent was winning. She'd have to intervene on Kiba's behalf soon if his mother didn't teach him new techniques.
Tenkuu however was trouncing Naruto. The seals on the room were just too much for Naruto. Kurenai guessed she couldn't have been out for a few minutes, the building was still intact.
She looked over at a terrified Hinata and nudged her. "Hinata, I need you to remove my bonds."
"H-how? T-they took m-my weapons."
"Can you cut them with chakra? Your jyuuken?"
"N-No, b-but I-I m-might be able to un-t-t-tie it."
Kurenai nodded. "Get to it then." She was surprised at how quickly Hinata could do it. Despite both their their hands being behind their backs Hinata was working like she could see it anyways. Kurenai refused to slap her forehead as soon as her hands came undone. She can see it! She has the Byakugan!
Kurenai sat up and looked over at Naruto. She winced as Naruto got hit by a flying rock out of one of the seals. Kurenai began to fold hand signs as soon as she saw the other jonin not paying attention to the captives.
"Kurenai-sensei!" Naruto cried out in joy seeing her sitting up again.
Kurenai spared a quick glance over to her jonin captor who was smiling. She quickly glanced about the room to look over what was happening.
The jonin was smiling, like he knew something they didn't. Tenkuu was forming hand signs that Kurenai couldn't see due to his back being turned toward her. Naruto was a little past him near the wall, bleeding from a few different spots. Kiba, or maybe Akamaru, was glancing toward Kurenai, before moving toward his opponent, who was currently fighting the other of the duo.
Kurenai began sweeping over the room again as she began to forge a genjutsu to throw off Taiyou. One clone of Kiba rushed in and Taiyou leaned back to dodge the blow, as he kicked up and smacked the other on his jaw. Tenku was behind Naruto, finishing the hand signs for his technique. The jonin was still smiling, proud of his students' abilites.
Wait, when did he? "NARUTO!" Kurenai cried out in warning.
Naruto's skin began to flake away, almost like someone had peeled it off of him, other places it just ripped into pieces, and his new clothing became red. His eyes rolled into the back of his head, his knees hit the ground first and his mouth opened in a silent scream. He continued to fall forward, collapsing out on the ground as his life flowed out from him.
The fighting in the room stopped, the only sound left was a chuckling Tenkuu, who reached up and took off the blindfold. His eyes rested on the blonde below him. "How sad... that I only get to see this beautiful sight once."
Kurenai felt a mist at the corners of her eyes, but she chilled her heart. It wouldn't do to lose her head here; she still had two students to get back. She had to fight; it was on her to get her students out. What was left of them anyways.
She'd have time to regret later. Now was a time for vengeance.
Kiba watched his teammate hit the ground. He couldn't believe it, there was no way Naruto would last longer than a minute like that. It was as if his skin had just been removed. In the stillness that filled the room, Kiba turned toward his opponent. "What the hell was that?"
"Scar of Memory," his partner chuckled. "Interesting though, that technique opens up wounds that you have received in the past. It seems your training is harsher than we're lead to believe."
Kiba glanced back at his teammate. There was no way in hell that all those wounds were what he encountered in training. It looked like at one point his skin was being peeled off. If that was from training, then he wasn't sure Kurenai was someone he wanted extra training from. He looked over at his teacher, who was just shocked as he was. Then he saw Hinata.
Her eyes were filled with tears, but she wasn't blinking. He could see her lips quivering about the gag in her mouth. Her whole body was shaking despite her body not having the strength, or will, to hold itself up any more. Her eyes were focused only on the limp and lifeless form of her crush.
It wasn't enough just to see her though, his nose could smell her too. Over the stench of blood, over the dust, over the scent of sweat. He could smell the tears, he could smell the fear. The scent of sorrow mixed with that lavender scent that had come to love.
"It also brings up memories as well," Taiyou continued, snapping Kiba out of what his enhanced senses told him. "He probably was able to remember every time he was emotionally hurt or insulted. At least recently, Tenkuu was never good at the mental half of the technique."
Hearing that, Kiba couldn't bring himself to look at Naruto's body. He knew he wasn't the nicest of guys to get along with. He was a jerk. He had been called out on it before. It didn't bother him, the only ones he wanted to be nice to were the ones who were supposed to be in his pack.
It was only now that he really realized that Naruto was in his pack. Some Inuzuka he was, he had pushed Naruto around, called him a moron, taunted him, tried his best to make him feel bad. All because Kiba Inuzuka was petty. If he had given the blonde idiot a chance, they probably could have been friends.
Kiba suddenly remembered the last thing he had said to Naruto. "Idiot."
Suddenly, Kiba was very angry.
He rushed at his opponent, teeth bared. "YOU BASTARDS!" he shouted before sinking his teeth into the arm of his opponent. His opponent cried out in pain and punched Kiba's face. Using the strength from the blow, Kiba pulled away, holding the chunk of flesh in his mouth. Akamaru jumped up and began tearing into Taiyou's leg and ripping chunks of flesh out of him.
"Y-you!" his opponent cried out in anger. "Sable Dance! Platre sonata!"
Drip... Drip...
The sound echoed in Naruto's ears. Liquid flowed into his mouth as he lay on the wet ground as the dripping continued. The sounds of laborious breathing pounded in his ears. Then a deep rumbling.
"Why..." the new sound said. "Why is it going dark?" Then with a growing power, "WHY IS IT GROWING DARK?"
Hinata stared at her crush's body. The one bright spot in her life, the one who despite being called weak and useless like her. The one who never ever gave up. No matter what happened, no matter how bad people treated the two of them, no matter what went wrong, he'd always get up smile and shout to the world, "I'm gonna be the HOKAGE!"
And she knew right then and there, she'd never hear that again. She'd never hear that laugh of his again. Not the one where he forced it to make everyone think he was happy, but the one that he gave when he finally learned a new technique or when he made a friend laugh. She'd never see that fox like smile of his, or hear his confident brash voice. She'd never see his eyes filled with hope again.
Not with his blood pouring out like that.
She couldn't believe it, and refused to believe it. She wanted to believe that he'd get up again so badly. She could have sworn she saw his arms moving again, and he was slowly getting up.
It was to shame of her clan that her swirling emotions at seeing her crush's blood pour out, and her misplaced hope he was moving that she fainted when a blast of powerful chakra washed over her.
Kurenai turned toward the jonin as soon as the jonin took a moment to glance at her. She was no Kakashi or Gai, but she was still a jonin of Konoha. Her taijutsu wasn't weak by any stretch of the word, and she had a few ninjutsu in her set of skills. Grabbing a sharp piece of stone in place of a kunai at the same time as making a single hand sign, she forged two copies of herself. Using her skill that came from years of making the perfect genjutsu techniques she began a process to hide herself in the clones.
The jonin smiled. "Do you honestly believe that will work?" he said moving to block her.
Fortunately, Kurenai didn't believe it would work, but in fact knew it would work. She came in from a differing angle with her weapon and the man barely avoided a deadly wound. "The dust," Kurenai stated, "it's a sensing technique isn't it?" She shoved the rock deeper into his flesh as she used her free hand to lift a weapon or two off of him.
The man's shock look quickly turned to anger. "How did you figure that out?"
Taking a page out of an aggravating teammate's tactics she stated with a smirk. "Do you honestly believe that will work?"
He growled and with a great effort pushed her back. The man formed his hand signs, and Kurenai stiffened as his skin began to turn grey and the blood flowing from the wound she gave him slowed. She looked down at her hands and found she had grabbed a kunai and two stone tablets with exploding runes on them. She shoved the two exploding tablets into a hidden pouch in her dress and shifted the knife. Only to drop it when she shivered as she felt a chakra she hoped to never feel again flood the room.
Kyuubi...
Naruto opened his eyes quickly. His body felt like he was overflowing with chakra, almost like every pore on his body was haemorrhaging chakra out of a need to equalize the pressure building in him. It felt like his entire body was under the speed techniques Tsume had taught him. Not just his legs like she had shown him, but his arms, eyes, ears, and even his nose were flooded with power. Power unlike anything he had ever known, but even the rush of that was nothing compared to what else he was feeling.
Anger. Raw, unfiltered, focused anger.
Anger at the morons who thought he was the fox. Anger at the mistreatment by the people in his village. Anger at the ones who thought he really didn't deserve their respect.
Mostly, however, he was angry at the fool who thought he could kill him.
He turned toward Tenkuu, his senses honing in on the one that had hurt him. His nose and ears telling him where the man was before his eyes could see him. The large man seemed to fail to notice Naruto's now overflowing power. His entire body shook with laughter. "This is truly amazing! Such power! It's sad that I'll have to kill you before finding out what this power is."
"You tried that once," Naruto pointed out as he formed a hand sign. His now clawed hands cutting into his own flesh, even as every wound on his body stitched back together. "It didn't work."
Ten clones appeared. Tenku raised his hands and began to fire off his techniques, but only one clone was tagged by the techniques. Naruto smirked evilly as he saw how much power even his clones held now. Two grabbed each limb. The stretched Tenku out, claws cutting into the tendons on his wrists and legs, that alone could have been enough to end Tenkuu's career as a ninja, but that wasn't enough for Naruto.
He tried to kill us!
Naruto's final clone grabbed Tenkuu's head as the others held him pinned to the ground. Despite all of Tenkuu's strength he couldn't remove the five clones holding him down, and without the dexterity his tendons had once provided, he couldn't form any hand signs. He was completely at Naruto's tender mercies.
We have to repay the favor!
Naruto began forming the hand signs for his newest techniques. He stood over Tenku and with the breath he used to shout the technique, spat out a fireball over Tenkuu. The man screamed as fire washed over him. It was painful, but it wasn't enough.
Let him know what's it's like to be helpless!
Naruto began to form the second technique he had learned from Kurenai. He laughed and stated, "Water Vortex jutsu!" The air in the room grew dry, and he ran his tongue over his lips as they dried. The vortex of water formed over Tenkuu. The technique always had some degree of seeming to be out of control, but this time it was beyond out of control. It was whirlpool of destruction and it spiraled down into Tenkuu's screaming mouth. The man began to convulse and shake as the water blocked his breathing passages and flayed skin from his face.
The clones holding him down shifted their weight. They now sat over his joints, and dug their claws into his body to further decrease his strength. They all smiled as he struggled even more. Even going so far to try and get a scream out for help. He called for his sensei and his teammate, but every time the clone holding his head forced his head back under the water, smiling the entire time at the dream of making the man pay.
The twisted smile on Naruto's clone grew. They will pay, they will all pay. No one pushes me around! No one dares try to hurt me! I'll make them all pay! Seeming to sense his thoughts, the clone looked up to the real Naruto holding the technique.
Naruto took one look at the demon-like visage of himself and his mind began to clear. Oh god, what am I doing? He wondered. The power he had felt began to grow distant. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just wanted to protect people. Like the old man. What... what am I doing?
He began to stop the technique as the red cloaks began to disappear from the clones.
"Keep it up, Naruto!"
Jumping at his teacher's voice, he began to rein the wild storm in. The vortex no longer shook like a wild storm, but focused down straight into Tenkuu's mouth. Naruto watched in horror as the man's movements began to grow more and more frantic. Then suddenly...
Nothing.
The water continued to flow over Tenkuu, but he no longer shook, he no longer fought. He just lay there. Naruto stopped the technique, and could see the panic in the eyes that stared miles away. The clone that had been holding Tenkuu's head steady under the water dissipated.
Naruto looked down at his hands, he felt Tenkuu struggling in his hands trying to get away. He could sense the blood under his fingernails as his claws had sunk into the sides of his face. He could still feel the tremors under the man's face as he had screamed for help. Begged for it even.
Then the next clone dissipated, and Naruto collapsed to his knees as more sensations came to him. He was treated to the sadistic glee that was upon his face as he had begun to take the man's life. That smile, that face, was not something that belonged to Naruto, and the same could be said about the claws that were his hands.
And that feeling of joy that came with Tenkuu's struggles was something Naruto knew he shouldn't feel.
Then the next clone dissipated and it happened all over again. Naruto looked up in horror seeing two more clones in front of him. Two more times of killing Tenkuu. Two more times at feeling that.
It was no wonder his stomach didn't agree with him anymore. He collapsed into his own vomit as the next clone dissipated.
Author's notes: For those who are interested... Taiyou is a rough translation job from Sol and Tenkuu is a similar one to Aria. Just an admission.
