Hey everyone,
Sorry for the exceptionally short and late chapter. This one was rather hard to write. I'm starting to get the idea of how combat scenes are written, so at that I'm improving. (I think)
Really busy as of late, may not upload a chapter tomorrow.
Copyright notice: I don't own Naruto.
In the Eye of a God, Chapter 12
"Assault, Part One"
Slowly, Naruto's eye adjusted to the darkness. As far as he could tell, the stone room was completely bare except for two doorways. A few dim lanterns illuminated the walls with an inconsistent, flickering flame. The rest of the company swung into the room, their presence only indicated by the temporary blockage of light from the trapdoor. Kakashi signaled for the group to split in two and investigate the doorways. Silently, everyone organized themselves in such a way that Naruto, Kiba, Sakura, Shino, Sasuke and two ANBU were to go through the right door, and the rest through the left door. Naruto leaned against the wall, peering into their assigned door. He looked at Kiba, and tapped his fox nose, simultaneously tilting his head to the side. Kiba nodded and after sniffing at the air briefly, held up four fingers and pointed to the right side of the hallway. Naruto nodded an affirmative, and crept into the narrow hallway.
Naruto refocused his eyesight and found a door about thirty feet in. The hallway was uncomfortably narrow, two people would have found it difficult to walk shoulder to shoulder. Looking down, Naruto noticed a number of Shino's bugs crawling along the floor. He didn't question it. Shino probably knew what he was doing. Naruto began to approach the doorway, Kiba, Sakura and Sasuke following him, Shino bringing up the rear with the two ANBU. As he got closer, Naruto began to hear voices coming from within the room.
"So when are we going to do it?" "Mizukage-sama is holding the main force back for the moment. She's waiting for us to get rid of a few of the more powerful shinobi in Konoha. She wasn't pleased with the failed attempt to capture the Kyuubi jinchuuriki." "Well, who are we going after now?" "She wants our group to take the Uchiha and the Scarecrow out of the picture. Iwa apparently isn't committing until we've proven that we can handle shinobi of such a caliber." Naruto could practically hear Sasuke stiffening. He hadn't been told he was a possible assassination target, something which Naruto notably regretted. Hearing this had probably thrown Sasuke off his game. Not by much, but possibly enough to make a difference in his fighting style. When the group had gotten within ten feet of the door, Naruto held up a hand. He wanted to hear more. "How are we going to take these two out then?" "Our intel says that the Uchiha has a girlfriend. We'll use a similar tactic to group A." A different voice chimed in, rather gruff in composition. "And how will you deal with the Copy Ninja?" Silence pervaded the room. A new voice, which Naruto assumed made Kiba correct in his arithmetic, quickly stammered an answer. "W-we'll figure it out." "You'd better. The Mizukage is not tolerating any more failure." This sounded like the end of the conversation. Naruto decided to act. Motioning forward with his hand, Naruto quickly slid up to the door and plastered himself against the wall. His comrades did the same, and Sasuke body-flickered to the other side of the door. Naruto peered into the room. An extremely large interior surprised him. The room was at least fifty feet long, and the width was the same, if not wider. A large fire flickered at the other side of the room, illuminating a table with three shinobi sitting around it. Naruto's eye flicked around the room. Kiba said there were four. Where is he? Still looking around the room, Naruto became rather uneasy. This doesn't feel right. Where is that last guy? He looked at Sasuke, held up four fingers and pointed to one. Sasuke shook his head. Naruto waved the others over. He motioned for them to fan out in an offensive position behind him and Sasuke. Shino, Kiba and Sakura lined up behind Sasuke, while the two ANBU covered Naruto's side. Naruto held up three fingers.
Two.
One.
Throwing a smoke bomb into the room, Naruto rushed in as Sasuke activated his Sharingan. The three ninja at the table reacted seamlessly. One of them activated a seal on their arm that caused the table to burst into flames as he jumped back. The one closest to the fire whipped out several kunai threaded together by a ninja thread and set himself into a defensive position. The third one, closest to the door, weaved several signs and wordlessly flickered back behind the man with the kunai. Naruto unsheathed his wakizashi and launched himself at the man with the seal on his arm. Sasuke himself was running towards the two by the fire. Watch our backs for the fourth one guys. Naruto sliced at the seal user with his sword, hoping to quickly decapitate him. No such luck. The man hopped backwards several steps and quickly weaved a jutsu. "Water Style, Water Whip Jutsu!" A large coil of water erupted from his palm and shot towards Naruto. Tucking and rolling under the coil, Naruto switched to lightning style, and touched the whip above his head, shooting chakra into the stream. A massive surge of electricity expanded from where he'd touched the whip, electrocuting the ninja who controlled it. Not relying on that alone, Naruto sped towards the stunned ninja and chopped at his neck with his hand, temporarily paralyzing the shinobi. Turning around, Naruto noticed that there was a pool of water where Sasuke and Kiba were fighting. A pool of water? By the fire? Suddenly, he remembered an experience from many years ago, on an expedition to the soon-to-be Naruto Bridge. "Sasuke! Kiba! Watch your feet!" Naruto noticed that Shino, Sakura and the ANBU hadn't entered the room. Good. The less they know about our numbers, the better. Sasuke looked down, and noticed the puddle. Instantly picking up on Naruto's hint, he grabbed Kiba, who'd been about to strike at the two shinobi in front, and threw him away from the puddle, and hopped away from the action himself. The two assaulted shinobi recovered as the puddle reformed around itself, becoming larger and larger until it took the shape of an extremely tall man. Solidifying, Naruto realized that there was a large bandaged sword on the man's back, and that he had gills on his cheeks, like a shark. Revealing pointy, shark-like teeth, the man smiled.
"Hoshigaki Kisame, I'll be your executioner today."
