HEY HEY HEY! Guess who? Yes its me! The Dragon is back with a brand new chapter for all of you to sink your teeth into! I know you want to get to the chapter so lets keep this brief!
Special thanks to everyone who reviewed! Woohoo!
Okay, now that's out of the way, lets start!
0-0-0-0-0-0-00-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Chapter 14: Cat, Smack
When Naruto and 2D got back to the hotel, Kakashi was waiting for them just beyond the door of their hotel room. Or they assumed he was, because as soon as they opened the door to their room (and mind you, they did this slowly and quietly), a pair of hands shot out from beyond the doorway and pulled them in quickly, before slamming the door shut right behind them. Kakashi apparently he had been twitchy since the girls had told him that 2D and Naruto ha been dragged into the office of the Raikage. However, Kakashi had decided to wait for the their return, basing his judgment on the fact that neither he nor his other squad member had been incarcerated or executed due to the two jinchuuriki so they couldn't be in all that much of trouble… right?
For a moment the thought of Naruto and 2D laying limp on the rocky surface of a dark cave, their bodies soaked in their own blood crossed Kakashi's mind. Dead… He shuddered at the thought, batting the image away mentally with violence. No way that could occur. Not in this country. Not when the boys had at least a small escort, and they were both together. At the very least they should have been able to get away. His heart beat sped up for a minute at the idea nevertheless. Just the thought of loosing not just his students but also two major powerhouses that were essential for the village, and one of them was the son of his sensei! The very thought of loosing them made him go pale with worry. Then a second thought managed to sneak into his brain. What if they were dead? What would he tell everyone back at Konoha? A second shudder rocked Kakashi's frame at that second thought. The walk back to konoha would be synonymous to walking towards the gallows to receive his death sentence.
Thankfully, just as Kakashi seemed to be edging close to dashing out the hotel and searching the entire village for the boys if needed be, the door of the room had opened just a crack. As soon as Kakashi saw this, he rushed to the door in such a way that he reached it in three quick strides before throwing the door open and reaching out to grab the subjects of his worries in a hurry and pull them in the room.
If anyone had been able to see past the mask on his face, they would have said that Kakashi's face would have been the very picture of relief. This emotion of relief was further emphasized when he hugged the hell out of the boys, crushing their ribs with the embrace to the extent that they became winded.
"Dear God! Where have you two been?!" The silver haired ninja exclaimed after the rib crushing hug that took the boys by surprise and left them gasping for air. "Are you alright? Where did you go? What happened? Why where you gone? AndFortheloveofGod WHERE were you two?"
Kakish was talking very quickly, talking positively faster than Naruto or 2D had ever heard him talk before. But even as he asked these questions, Kakashi was looking them up and down, checking to see any signs of struggle or causes of concern. Dear God he was glad they were alright! He might have had to consider going missing-nin (i.e. deserting from the village) if they both had gone and kicked the bucket.
"Well-" Naruto began to reply, slightly startled by the greeting he got from his usually laidback sensei, but before he could even start to explain anything, the door open again, though tis time much more gently, revealing that it was Noodle who had opened the door wide. She smiled with relief at the sight that greeted her eyes, and immediately turn around and called out down the hall rather loudly, "Guys! They are back!"
Thinking back upon the moment, Noodle would later realize that she would have usually never shouted out like that for someone in a hotel of such hg standing normally, but, truth be told, at the moment she quite frankly didn't give a damn. She was far more concerned with the return of her teammates. If one paused to consider that said team mates had had the rest of the team wondering what the hell had been going on for a several hours without any contact, and without any prior warning to their where about, one might have to agree that her attitude was justified.
Not a second had gone by since Noodle called out the rest of the team before the remaining members of Team Ghost darted out from their rooms, much like hornets dashing out from a hive, and headed for Kakashi's room. Within a moment, all the seven members of Team Ghost had squeezed themselves into the room, which was originally designed to host only up to three people comfortably. After a minute of struggle during which everyone tried to find a place to seat, Kakashi, who had opted to lean against a wall near to the door, stared at the two recently returned members of his team.
"So? Where were you?" He asked, once more composed and relaxed as he usually was, "You better have a good explanation, I was damn near a mental break down with worry."
"Yes, what happened to you two?" Sakura asked curiously, "Do you have any idea how confused and worried we were? I mean, you two got marched into the Kage's office like criminal heading for a trial."
"Well, funny you should ask." Naruto said with a bit of a nervous chuckle, his hand reaching back to scratch his head as he said this. Soon Naruto and 2D launched into the story of what had transpired that day in detail (though 2D conveniently left out the part about a certain cat trying to flirt with him), detailing the whole events as accurately as they could. By the end of their tale, Kakashi was unsure if he wanted to strangle them, scold them, congratulate them, or do a mix of these.
"I swear, you two are like a beacon for trouble." Kakashi said with a tired sigh, "But at least you delivered the message that we really wanted to deliver to the Raikage. At least he'll consider your words about the Akatsuki."
2D frowned at this, "I hope so. But I hope they do it quick. I don't think the Akatsuki are going to be sitting on their hands for much longer."
Naruto nodded at his friends' words, "I agree. These guys are not the type to sit around from what I've seen.
Murdoc grunted in agreement, "They are tenacious bastards, and the kind who don't give a damn about how the job is done, as long as it gets them what they want."
There was a general silence for a minute after that, each person lost in their own thoughts, contemplating what would they do depending on the outcome of the Raikage's judgment. However, Kakashi finally brought them all back from the depths of their own thoughts with his voice.
"Well team. We are done for today. Everyone get some dinner and go sleep. We still have to do our duties as guards tomorrow."
Everyone nodded, and went back to their rooms before doing as their team leader had asked. No point in wasting time being cramped in a small room, after all, now that they knew that everything was alright. Or at least, for now.
0-0-0-0-0
Mean time, the Killer Bee's team was being escorted by Yugito all the way to the nearest hospital thanks to the whoop ass they got from a certain blond Konoha ninja, all the while chattering amongst themselves. Within an hour, the entire team ad been diagnosed with a number of injuries. To be more specific, Samui was suffering from several shallow cuts and a number of bruises on her forearms and legs and some mild internal damage to her mid-section; Karui had a mild concussion and her arms looked like they had a big polka dotted pattern of bruises tattooed on them, and poor Omoi had his jaw and ribs cracked in several places each.
While they made their way back from the hospital (each with their fair share of bandages), and after Yugito had departed to do her own thing, Karui felt the need to comment on the fight yet again. "He really opened up a can of whoop ass and force-fed us its contents. I've never had my butt handed to me like that by anyone less than three years our senior."
"Well," Omoi said, "He did warn us. This is what comes from not taking an unknown opponent seriously from the very start I guess…even if he was younger than us."
"Like they say," Samui spoke up, "hindsight is twenty-twenty."
Karui growled at herself, still ticked off at loosing at the loudmouth ninja. "He doesn't fight like Kira B ((A.N: For those of you who don't know, Killer Bee is an alias, Kira B (or Kirabi depending on the translator) is his real Name)) or Yugito though. I always assumed that all demon containers were sort off like a hurricane or exploding volcano. Kinda like a compact version of controlled natural disaster."
Samui nodded at her, "He was more like a fighter or martial artist than that. He cornered us and only took us out when the opportunity was perfect."
Karui grunted with some distaste. "Don't praise that brat too much. That last move was more like a big prank rather than a real finishing move. It pisses me off. Worst part of it was that he didn't even stop by the hospital. Which means he went straight home. And that means that all the cuts or bruises were we thought we got him good weren't even worth his time to go get them checked up. We didn't even leave a half-decent mark on him."
That left the team quite for a while, contemplating in silence their own moments in the fight. A minute later, while Omoi rolled his lollipop in mouth as he mulled things over in his mind, a thought crossed his mind. He maid a contemplating sound and then spoke again. "Think he could beat Kirabi?"
"Not a chance." Karui said flatly, "Sensei has perfect control of the eight-tailed beast, and he also has at least twenty years of training and experience over boy wonder. Even Yugito still hasn't been able to fully master the two-tailed beast, which mind you should be a hell of a lot easier to master than the Kyuubi, and she is five years older than that Naruto kid. So basically, there is no way he has mastered his beast, which is already a huge disadvantage in bijuu VS bijuu fight. Even if that kid whooped our asses, if he fought with Kirabi, it would be game over as soon as it turned into a bijuu pissing contest."
Samui nodded in agreement at this, reaching up with her hand to massage her neck tenderly as she replied, "I have to agree. As strong as that kid is, I doubt very much he has mastered the fox. And sensei is an S-rank ninja. The odds aren't in Naruto-san's favor."
"True." Omoi said with a nod. "Then what about Yugito? Think that that he could beat her?"
Karui frowned as she thought about. As much as she thought Yugito was the most badass female ninja in the village, she still had yet to reach the level of Killer Bee. "Hmmm…. I don't know… It would be a match that would be more even though, that's for sure."
Samui allowed her self a small smile, "I don't know either. He was fighting pretty conservatively so I can't measure the extent of his strength for sure. Still. He is pretty cute."
Her teammates almost tripped over their own feet at this statement. Samui, one of the most reserved and stoic people in the village, had called a male younger than her by two years, cute. That was about as surprising to them as having a turtle bitch-slap their faces.
Karui was the first to recover from the schock, "S-Samui! You can't be serious, he is two years younger than us! Not only that, he isn't even from the same village, let alone the same country!"
Samui returned to her stoic self, her face once more a blank slate as she shrugged at her hot-blooded teammate, "So? He still kicked our collective asses, and he managed to make it look easy while he was at it."
"B-but," Omi tried to articulate, "Samui, he is a demon container too!"
Samui shrugged once more, her clan's compound coming into view just past one house down the street. "I think whatever I want to think." She stated simply as she reached for the gate of her house, "It's not like it's a crime to find someone attractive. Bye guys."
And with that, she entered her home and left her baffled friends behind, her thoughts already switching gears and floating away to the sweet fantasy of herself relaxing of a warm bath.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
The following trio of days was not as eventful as the one prior to it was, though for that little blessing, Kakashi was very grateful. He didn't enjoy having mini-freak out moments like the one he had yesterday. One per diplomatic mission was plenty more than the amount that he liked to have. Still, the time he and the majority of his team spent as 'bodyguards' for the elder were excruciatingly boring. He couldn't even read his Icha Icha Paradise books because of the diplomatic image that they needed to maintain.
In contrast to the rest of their team, Naruto and 2D were having a blast, figuratively speaking.
The two jinchuuriki had been exploring the village with interest, jumping from one location to another, and somehow everyday they managed to be bump into either Yugito or team B. It was almost odd really. But it had to be a coincidence right? There was no way that Team B and Yugito were seeking them out right? That was just crazy talk.
Whatever the case might have been, for the next three days after Naruto had engaged in a spar with the three chunin of Team B, Naruto and 2D would have been found either being forced to help Yugito and the females of Team B (along with poor Omoi) to shop. Basically they were glorified pack mules. Pack mules that would often be asked by the girls how they looked with this dress or that hat or those shoes, and in general what said glorified pack-mules thought would look better on the girls.
This usually occupied around three hours of the day, and followed by lunch. It should be noted that the hour unofficially assigned for the acquisition and consumption of the food for lunch, was always a time during which the Kumo ninja would pepper 2D and Naruto with questions. Specifically about the music the Gorillaz produced. Like most people in the elemental nations, they were intrigued by the idea of a new music style.
Something worthy of note was that, through out the pseudo-dates, Yugito would subtly flirt with 2D (well… sometimes not so subtly, such as the time when she 'slipped' and fell on him, after which she thank him for 'catching' her and attempted to stab his face with her lips, trying to engage in the act known as kissing). Also, Naruto was faced with some probing questions from team B, and was regarded some appraising stares from the females of said team.
Oddly enough, every time they sat down to eat, 2D and Naruto could detect that the passing girls and women would start leaking a small amount of killing intent directed at the Yugito, Samui, and Karui. Though the reason for this was a mystery for them.
The highlight of those three days, however, occurred on the third day, when the Naruto and 2D were invited by Yugito, Kira B, and Team B to the local hot-springs. The place seemed to be quite the simple on the outside, but inside it had a beautiful set up. The structure of the building was made of lasting hardwood, decorated with mirrors and some stone work in just the right places. The outdoor hot springs themselves were divided down the middle by a thin fence made out of straw-colored bamboo wood, giving the hot springs an old-style feeling. It was an incredibly relaxing experience.
Until Killer Bee started talking about girls. And boy did that escalate quickly.
At the start he asked Naruto and 2D about girls they had dated before, and was quite shocked to learn that Naruto had never dated anyone. He actually forgot about rapping for a moment to digest the information that had been given to him. Then he went on tease him for a while about it, before starting to suggest several girls. This then was followed by the conversation taking a turn into the appraisal of the female body, and B was very vocal of his preferences, and this, in turn, soon lead to a conversation into an unexpected direction.
It turns out that brother of the Raikage was very much in love with the "Icha Icha" series, and when found out that Naruto and 2D had been students of Jiraya… Well, he became quite animated, asking questions about the Toad-Sanin and recalling some of his favorite plots from a score of books written by said toad sage.
At some point during this conversation, Naruto and 2D had explained that the Toad Sage liked doing 'research' for his books. Right after they had explained this, Kirabi nodded with understanding before accidentally slamming his heavy fist on the bamboo fence that divided the hot springs, proclaiming that only a man of Jiraiya's level would have thought of gathering information and inspiration in such an spectacular way!
And then the fence fell down.
That was when only four males in the hot springs, 2D, Naruto, Omoi, and Kirabi, were treated to the sight of the three nude females that had accompanied them to the hot springs. Everyone was frozen for a minute, just staring at each other in shock. This moment of silence was broken when the three very angry girls proceeded to growl, and jumped forward to beat Kirabi within an inch of his life. And while Kirabi was being physically abused, the other three males sped off into the showers and change rooms, not keen on staying to watch the rapping ninja getting the snot beat out off him. If they had stayed, who knew if one of them would be next? Instead, the thanked the heavens that it wasn't them the ones getting beat up.
They enjoyed the view though. They enjoyed it very much.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
On the fourth day after Naruto and 2D had been marched into the office of the Raikage for suspected espionage, the day was more toned down than the prior ones. There was no hot springs, nor was there an extended shopping session with anyone. Instead, 2D and Naruto had sat down to talk with each other, discussing strategies that they could develop for fighting. They had been playing around for the last three days, but they couldn't go on slacking around completely. The weight of the knowledge that at sometime in the near future they had to deal with the Akatsuki was pressing on them heavily.
For hours they talked and painted out ideas with words to one another, with some breaks in between to eat, and this they going on from the morning until the afternoon. By the end of the day, they had gathered a handful of ideas worth experimenting with. All in all, it had been a lazy day. A really uneventful one really, which was quite the rarity for them.
But this made them a little…. Edgy. It wasn't normal at all. Not for them at least. The day had been quite literally as uneventful as you could get. So much so that when Murdoc had asked them during dinner what mischief they had been up to, even he had frowned.
"I don't know guys," Russle commented, "You best enjoy it for now. 'Cause we all know that soon this peaceful days might be put on hold, and there aint anything we can do about it for now."
"Lards is right," Murdoc said as he pointed his fork at everyone, wagging it like an accusing finger, "We all know that this is the calm before the shit-storm of the century."
They all knew he was right; none of them so much as questioned that. Unless the Akatsuki suddenly decided to go all hippy and peace-loving, and decided to start singing Kumbaya and wishing everyone to go home with peace in their hearts. Which was about as likely as a fish tap-dancing to "All the single Ladies" with an octopus.
In short, it wasn't happening.
And they were right. Soon a big pile of defecated waste was about to hit a very large ceiling fan that was spinning at very high speeds.
0-0-0-0
Kumo was a nation that was highly militarized amongst the elemental nations, with much more strict regulation with respect to security than Konoha had. As a matter of fact, Kumo was the only one of the five elemental nations that still had a curfew hour. Anyone out at a time past eleven at night was subject to interrogation and incarceration. In general, this law wasn't enforced too rigidly considering the times of peace, and thus it was possible to find the stray and lone person returning home at midnight, when most everyone else had already arrived at home and settled in for the night.
Of course, the exceptions to the rule were the patrolling ninjas out on the streets and rooftops, who would watch over the slumbering citizens.
On the night of the fourth day after the spar between Naruto and the three young members of Team B, Yugito was in patrol duty, overseeing a sector that was, as usual, quiet and devoid of people.
Or at least, that's what she thought, until her instinct started nagging at the back of her mind, gently at first, and steadily growing stronger. It was the feeling of being watched. Usually, most people would dismiss the feeling after a certain amount of time, or ignore it right away altogether if they are in a zone which they consider 'safe'. However, ninjas don't tend to do that, and considering their line of work, they got a good reason not to.
For this reason Yugito stopped walking and strained her ears for a moment, listening attentively for any sign of an enemy. For a few dead seconds, the sound was non-existent, save for her own heartbeat, but the feeling persisted, telling her she was being watched. She frowned, quite sure of her instincts and looked around.
"Alright you," She said loudly and clearly, her voice carrying a note of annoyance, "I'm tired enough as it is without having to play the guessing game here. If you want something, come on out and lets get this over with. "
She waited in silence for a second or two, quite confident that she had either scared off whoever it was that was looking at her, or, failing that, she would have the ability to deal with the annoyance swiftly.
Following the brief seconds of silence, the sound steps could be clearly heard, two people by the sound of it. Within seconds, two people stepped out from behind a house into her field of view, each of them wearing a straw hat that obscured their faces, and both men wearing black cloaks with red clouds on them.
All at once calling them out like that didn't seem like the greatest idea she had ever had.
One of the figures, the taller one, called out to her. "Yugito Nii, correct?"
She felt a slight chill run down her back briefly, recalling what Naruto had told her not long ago when she had asked about the Akatsuki's appearance. Long black cloaks with red clouds.
"Well then," Yugito said with a nervous smirk, her hands curling slightly with anticipation, "What if I said yes?"
0-0-0-0
Running was something that Ninja's excelled at when compared to normal people. It was practically part of the job definition. If you are too slow, you die. Period. It doesn't matter how strong you can punch, or how smart you are, nor how pretty you are, if in the middle of a mission some one surprises you and kills you before you can react. Likewise, if you are trying to scape, or if you are trying to get someone to safety, or if you have to deliver anything to anyone, speed was crucial to achieve the task. Speed was one of the basic pillars of a shinoby's strength.
And speed was something at which Yugito excelled even when compared to other Jonnins. Which was a good thing because currently she was running like her life depended on it. Though in this case, "running like her life depended on it" wasn't a figure of speech. It was quite literal.
Yugito's first move after the Akatsuki had revealed themselves was to run. She knew she couldn't fight them in the middle of one of the most populated sectors in the village. The death count amongst civilians would have been devastating. Hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths would have come to be if she fought two S-rank nuke-nin in the place were they had come to face her. Even if she decided to just defending her self until help arrived, she would be at a massive disadvantage, for she would have to think of the civilians too while fighting them, and even if she succeeded holding them off until someone arrived, the death count would still be much too high. Besides, she had no doubt that they would have no qualms in using civilians as a bargaining chip to get what they wanted.
So she ran. She ran around the corner of a house, into an alley, jumped into the first sewer line she came across, blasting her way in with a quick fire jutsu, hoping that the noise would at least attract some attention while she tried to get away. Perhaps someone would complain and they would send ninja to check out what all the fuzz was about.
But she couldn't rely on that. For all she knew, no help my come at all until they discovered her missing in the morning.
"Shit shit shit shit shit…" She muttered to herself while she ran. She hadn't expected the Akatsuki to try to confront her in her own hometown, and certainly not in such a populated residential area. Hence, she had been forced her to move underground, where she was hidden from view, luring them away from the civilians as they follow her. She knew this was dangerous. But she didn't exactly have any glamorous opportunity to choose an alternative path of action because as far she could analyze, there wasn't any other choice. She barely had had time to come up with this idea as it was.
She heard a high-pitched, low volume sound that she recognized all too well, the sound of air being sliced by metal, and threw herself to the side, and thanks to this she managed to avoid a cluster of kunais that had been thrown at her prior position. She tucked and rolled after her doge and stood up in a fluid motion, continuing to run, though loosing some precious distance between herself and the enemy. She ventured a brief glance behind her, observing the relentless opponents chase her without pause, slowly getting closer.
She turned abruptly down a wider pipe that connect to her present one, running down the length of it as she tried to go in the general direction that would lead to the Raikage's tower, where she hoped she could still find the Raikage or some other high-level Jonnins to help her deal with these men. However, the Akatsuki member kept preventing her from doing just that, throwing kunnais at her, sometimes with explosive notes even. They clearly wanted to avoid drawing attention to themselves, and so they all ended up going deeper into the mountain, down sewer-lines carved out of stone.
She had started to breath heavily when she finally entered a large elongated chamber were a number of sewers connected. Yugito, hell bent on continuing her scape, was forced to throw herself aside as a large object was thrown in her direction from behind her, forcing her into a 'move or die' situation. Whatever the object was, she heard it slam against the ground and imbed itself there with the unmistakable sound of rock being grinded against steel. She looked back once she jumped back to her feet, and noticed that the object was some sort of crazy, three balded scythe with its handle attached to a cable.
"Fuck, finally stopped the bitch." An annoyed male voice sounded from the Akatsuki that pulled the scythe back towards himself. He pulled off his hat, tossing it aside to reveal his silver hair, which had been slicked back almost perfectly. "You dodged the scythe. Impressive. But I'm the slowest one of our group." He said with a smirk.
"Hidan, be more grateful." The other man said, "We are hidden from general view here. It will be much harder for her to get helped. And in this confined space she won't be able to move around well in her bijuu form even if she can use it."
Hidan grumbled at this, "Fuck, how is that a good thing? I can't kill her, so I was looking forward to massacring a few retards that would try to help her. Now I can't fucking enjoy myself properly."
"Put a sock in it Hidan." The other man replied, whose eyes never left Yugito, "We got work to do."
"Fine. Fine. Fuck it all." Hidan replied, "Just give me a second, Kakuzo. I need to offer prayers of forgiveness."
Kakuzo growled at his partner as he tried to edge around Yugito slowly, assessing the situation in his mind. "Take this seriously, boy. She is a demon container. She could kill you."
"Bull shit." Hidan replied as he spun the scythe for a second in his hand before settling down in a stance, which was presumably a battle stance, though to Yugito it seemed sloppy for an alleged S-rank ninj. "I can't be killed, not even by her."
"You cocky brat," Kakuzo replied, "Shut up and-"
"Shut it for a second will you?" Hiddan replied, "I told you I have to do it. Le me start with my prayer to Jashin-sama. I don't like it either, but the dogma of my faith is pretty strict about this stuff."
"You and your retarded praying thing again." Kakuzo said as he rolled his eyes. Oddly enough, though Kakuzo seemed to be focused on Hidan when he talked, Yugito sensed his attention on her. Still, she slowly reached down and grabbed a couple of Kunai, trying to keep them hidden from view.
"Hey!" Hian barked back at him, "This is part of my religion, asshole."
Yugito licked her lips briefly, and tried to smirk more confidently again, attempting to keep the fake mask of confidence on her face at all times. If she showed weakness they would work that edge, and that could make all the difference between her walking out here alive and free, or half dead and condemned to a torturous death.
"Damn, you two really argue more than a married couple." She stated, trying to sound confident. "You don't really think I'm a threat, do you? Then how about…. THIS!"
Without warning she threw out the kunai she had been hiding, five in total, hitting the entrances of all the sewer lines that connected to the room where she and the two hostile ninjas were presently in. The Akatsuki, startled, jumped aside, expecting her target to be them, but all too late they realized their error. Explosive tags had been attached to each of the kunai, which detonated in simultaneously. The shockwave was disorienting for all three of them, since the vibrations bounced around the enclosed area, half deafening the Akatsuki duo that had been closer to the explosions.
Following the explosion, the entrance to the tunnels of the sewers collapsed. Rock grinded over rock as the entrances to the room caved in, locking everyone inside the room.
"What now, boys?" Yugito asked with a genuine smirk, "Now you can't get away."
"You bitch!" Hidan screamed at her, "My ears are ringing!"
Kakuzo shook his head in an attempted to clear some of the ringing from his ears and looked at her. "You seem to be misunderstanding, girl. That's just a temporary set back. Also, now you are stuck here with us."
"It's a bet then." Yugito said evenly, "Here, we are deep enough inside the mountain that no one else should get hurt. But once they realize I haven't reported, they'll look for me. I don't know if I can kill you, but I bet that I can keep you busy until someone from my home village can find us and get help."
Kakuzo chuckled, amused at her words. "Ah, I see. Playing the hero eh? Thinking about everyone else instead of yourself? Cheeky brat. Soon you'll realize how far over your head you are. Because in war, you can't afford to think of anyone but yourself."
Yugito narrowed her eyes slightly at Kakuzo, and replied with ferocity. "I swear on my name that I will teach you a lesson you wont forget."
"Oh geeze." Hidan said with irritation, "Teach us a lesson huh? You know, when someone shouts something like that at me with so much determination, it just plain irritates me. And when I get irritated I het all hot-headed. And when I get hot-headed—"
"Enough, Hidan." Kakuzo said, interrupting his partner in mid sentence. "We have work to do, we aren't here to chat."
"Yeah, yeah." Hidan said dismissively before continuing. "Anyways, when I get like that all I want to do is destroy everything."
"Hidan, I said enough." Kakuzo repeated, "This blabber is useless."
"You know I hate this assignments." Hidan replied, "They go against my believes. Carnage is the key concept to my religion. But since we can't kill her, how about we negotiate. Hey girl!"
"What?" Yugito asked with a growl.
"Can you just roll over and pretend to die so we can capture you? I mean, just give up." Hiddan pitched in, "You don't have a chance anyways."
Yugito bristled at the suggestion, and immediately hunched down and started generating the dark blue chakra that belonged to the two-tailed cat demon sealed inside her. "Get real! I rather go down fighting you two than playing the frightened hostage!"
Hidan stared at her blankly for a full second as she generated her chakra. "Soooo…. That's a 'no', right?"
Kakuzo swore under his breath, "Oh! For the love of…. You really are stupid."
A full tail generated from Yugito, an without warning she rushed Hiddan and smacked him with a punch with enough strength that he was propelled off his feet and smashed against a stone wall.
"Fuck…" Hidan said as he stood up properly, a small amount of rubble and dust from the wall on his hair still.
"Let play little mice." Yugito said with a small smirk. The Hidan guy had been hit so easily. Perhaps this wouldn't be as bad as she had expected.
0-0-0-0-0
Naruto was snoring soundly, unaware of anything other than his dreams (which had started to involve more girls in the nude in recent years, but that's a bit off topic here), until he was woken up by a rumbling of hunger from his belly. With a yawn, the blond haired ninja rolled out of the bed and stood up lazily, still a bit wobbly from his half-sleep state. He crossed the room in his half-zombified state, thinking of nothing else than finding a good snack.
In mid-step, the ground quaked under his feet briefly, and he fell face first on the floor with a half-yelp of surprise. Grumbling, he stood up, looking around with confusion for the cause of the shaking, fully awake now.
'The hell was that?' He thought to himself.
'Not an Earthquake, that's for sure. ' The kyuubi replied in his mind. 'This zone hasn't been active for centuries. All the tectonic faults should be dead.'
'Then a volcano? Maybe someone really fat?' Naruto asked in his mind questioningly.
'No and no.' The Kyuubi replied, 'This floor is made of stone, no one is that heavy. And there isn't any serious volcanic activity here. These mountains have never showed any signs of it. I'm betting that the little shake we just felt was an explosion from underground.'
'An explosion? Who would be blowing things up? Specially underground?'
The Kurama sighed and tried to hint at it again. 'No one in their right mine blows things up directly under a village purposely. And how would any normal person find that amount of explosives?'
'So… its probably a fight? But who fights underground?'
'Oh for fuck sakes.' The demonic fox said with irritation, 'Someone who doesn't want to be seen fighting you shaved monkey! Use your head.'
'Well I'm sooooorry.' Naruto grumbled in his mind.
'My ass you are.' The fox snorted, 'Now get dressed. We probably should check out the source.'
'Fine… Fine.' Naruto replied, quickly dressing. The one thing Naruto didn't notice, however, was that just as he was about to leave through the window, 2D woke up and caught sight of him. The blue-haired man chewed his lip for a second, wondering if he should go after him or wake up the others. In the spur of the moment, he decided to follow Naruto and bring him back himself. No need to get Naruto in trouble with everyone.
'Where do you think he is going at two in the morning?' 2D asked Ventus in his mind, already standing up and grabbing the pants he had been wearing the day before.
'Hmmm….' The lizard said in thought, 'I wasn't really focusing, but we better follow them. God knows that kid is a magnet for trouble.'
2D nodded as he buckled on the pants and followed Naruto out the window, not even trying to throw on a shirt. Naruto already had a minute of time over him, and that was more than he could afford to give Naruto when the blond kid was on a hurry.
0-0-0-0-0-0
Yugito was now in her full-blown Bijuu mode, taking the corporal shape of the cat beast she hosted inside of her own body. However, the confined space had limited the use of her powers in this shape. The fight had been difficult; difficult to the point a part of a wall had been blow away, opening a passage to a different sewer system. A good chunk of the roof of the chamber itself had collapsed, filing part of the chamber with broken rocks and boulders.
The fight was getting really heated, her opponents making use of the restricted space in which she could move to attack her and chip away at her defenses. Inside her own mind, Yugito growled and struggled to retain the released shape of the Nibi as she approached the limit of her control. She didn't have the ability to handle the Nibi's true shape for extended periods of time, at least not yet. But at the same time, she couldn't afford to loose the strength of the full form of the Nibi at this point, for she was sure that the other two ninjas would destroy her without it.
She was giving her enemies wounds, she was giving them a run for their money. If only she could keep it up…. But regardless of her wishes, she could feel the control starting to slip from her grasp.
Within minutes, the form of the Nibi dispelled all at once, dissipating and leaving behind a panting cut-up Yugito as she struggled for a moment to keep standing upright, a little woozy from loosing the power of the Nibi all the sudden. Hidan, now using his ability granted by that Jashin-sama demon that he called his god, looked like white voodoo skeleton had been painted over his transformed black ivory skin.
Hidan was still pulling out his scythe from his leg, smirking psychotically at Yugito, who winced as blood dripped from the same spot on her leg that Hiddan had stabbed himself on his own leg. "Ha! Not bad bitch, you are handling this better than I thought!"
'This is getting ugly.' Yugito thought to herself, praying that she could continue for a while longer. At least until someone got here. 'This is ridiculous though. I've been fighting them for at least an hour and I haven't been able to kill even one!'
To be fair, Hidan and Kakuzo were not exactly unscratched. The girl was quite a handful. For a moment they really had been caught like rats. Their data had not said that the she could transform into a bijuu. Not to mention this bijuu was considered the spirit of living vengeance, which made it all the more difficult to deal with. But now that the bijuu form was gone, the tables were tipping in their favour.
She was wounded in many places, mostly thanks to the Hidan fellow, who had injured her by using that weird technique ritual thing. She had set the bastard on fire at least three times, she had stomped on him, and she had even sliced his abdomen (which had been sewn shut by some weird technique from his partner), but still he wouldn't die. Instead, once he got a sample of her blood and consumed it, he had injured himself to injure her.
She had figured out only too late how the technique from the silver haired ninja worked, and now she felt herself drained. She had scared them; sliced Hidan's arm open to the bone, and hacked Kakuzo's arm clean off twice. But every time she did this to Kakuzo , he reattached his arm with some weird living threads like a sentient ragdoll, and Hidan didn't seem to mind his arm being sliced open.
These guys were like the boogiemen of the Ninja world. They couldn't seem to stay injured long enough to die. And that was one of the most terrifying things to Yugito about them. No matter how weak you are, if you can't die, you are strong.
"Damn…" Yugito said as she shook her head and made herself stand at the ready again, "Who knew that there were monsters like you guys?"
Kakuzo eyed her wearily and replied, "That's quite the interesting remark coming from a demon container."
Yugito snorted, "Takes one to know one." And she threw herself at them once more.
0-0-0-0-0
The sewers of Kumo were significantly different that those in most other locations, mainly due to the elevation and construction of it. From the looks of it, the sewers were quite wide, and interconnected in a wide maze that sloped down hill in a somewhat winding form, weaving around the insides of the mountains. It was almost like it was designed as a scape route for citizens. Which it probably was, once upon a time. Now it was merely a convenient replacement for a sewer system.
"Man, this place goes on for ever!" Naruto said in a whispered voice, "You can only tell for sure if you are going up or down thanks to the slope."
'This place is a maze kiddo.' The Kyuubi said inside his head, 'But we are getting closer, you can feel the vibrations getting stronger.'
Naruto nodded. What the Kurama said was indeed true. He could feel the quaking through his feet, the hard rock conducting the vibrations quite well. As he ran, Naruto pondered for a minute what he would do if he ran into a high-ranked enemy, someone like the Akatsuki even. It wasn't impossible. In fact, Kumo had two jinchuuriki, so perhaps it would even be expected for them to come here first to gather one. But would they dare to attack a grown demon container in their own village? If that was the case, then even with all his training, taking on two at the same time would be dangerous, very much so in fact.
'What should we do if it's an other two Akatsuki members?' Naruto asked Kurama mentally; 'I don't know if I can take on two at the same time, specially without full control over you power.'
'Hmmmm….' The kyuubi said thoughtfully, 'You would have to distract them, or block them off in such a way that you could get away in this sewer system.'
Naruto nodded as he kept running as quietly and quickly as he could through the sewer system, trying to angle towards the source of the vibrations, 'I guess there are several things we could do. A few dozen shadow clones could come in handy.'
'Very true brat. Now focus on what's around you. I can feel three chakra sources not too far from here, straight ahead.'
'Roger that.'
Naruto picked up the pace, his feet carrying him quietly through the dimly illuminated sewer system as he strained to hear of smell anything out of the ordinary. Surprisingly, his ears picked up the sound of explosions, along with war cries and the sound of steel clashing against metal and stone, not too far from his location.
Moments later Naruto ran down a tunnel, following the sounds and taking a left turn at another intersection. Ahead of him he found what seemed to be a hole in the wall of the sewer line up ahead, rubble scattered around it as if a wrecking ball had made it. An slightly stronger light was emanating from this rough aperture, and it occasionally radiated a burst of bright light, and the timing of said burst of light were consistent with shouts as someone called out fire jutsus and spammed them at an unseen enemy. Oddly enough, he recognized the female voice.
Frowning, Naruto slowed down his pace to a walk when he was close to the hole, doing his best to suppress his chakra signature. He sneaked up and glanced through the hole of the collapsed chunk of wall as stealthily as he could.
His eyes widened when he saw the fight going on before him. Yugito was fighting two Akatsuki with viciousness, like a cornered alley cat. But the fight wasn't going in her favor. She was quite beat up, cut and bruised everywhere, panting with exertion as she dodged the strangers with difficulty for a second before one of the men stabbed her hands with Kunai to the wall, her arms wide one, looking like she had been crucified.
The man with silver hair, with face painting like a skull growled, obviously tired to some extent as he glared at the immobilized ninja girl. "Damn woman, giving us so much trouble."
'Hold it brat, don't move yet.' Kurama told Naruto sternly in his mind, sensing the boy starting to move, 'Wait a moment until they are distracted enough. They think they have won. The moment they turn they let down their guard enough, then nail them.'
Growling inwardly, Naruto nodded and forced himself to stay still, observing from the shadows, waiting.
Hidan laughed now, and rubbed his neck as he rolled it, making it crack in a away that was sure to be unhealthy to most people. "You crazy bitch! You are pretty good, too bad though. Your loss."
"Don't act so smug."Kakuzo said, "She killed you at least three times."
"Fuck off asshole." Hidan said as he flipped him off, "We still won. And you, Kakuzo, should have used your masks to help!"
"Not a chance Hidan." Kakuzo replied flatly, "With her raging about in her full form in such a small space, she would have surely destroyed at least three. It was much better watch her get frustrated with you and kill you over and over while I chipped away at her strength."
"You fucker." Hidan grumbled, as he turned his back on him to walk towards Ygito, showing his back unknowingly to Naruto too. "Fuck it. Lets cut off her hands and feet so this damn bitch doesn't try anything else. I'm fucking sick and tired of chasing her around."
"Do what you want," Kakuzo replied, "Just don't kill her."
Hidan raised his arms while he held his wicked looking scythe, obviously intent in following through with his prior statement. Smirking, he looked at her and said, "Game over… Bitch."
The moment Hidan said this, three kunai thwacked against his back, sinking themselves in the bones of his ribs painfully deeply. Hidan barely had time to gasp in pain and confusion before the ninja wire that was tied to the base of the kunais became taut as a force tugged on them just an instant before they were set on fire. The fire jutsu ran along the length of the ninja wire in an instant, and engulfed Hidan in raging flames, causing the silver haired nija to screech in pain and drop his scythe as he threw himself into the sewer's water.
Even as Hidan had began to drop his scythe, a blur of movement threw itself at Kakuzo, who snapped his head around just in time to see a gold-haired youth rush at him with a kunai drawn. Naruto sliced at him with his kunai, but the blade was blocked by the larger man's hand. He held the kunai in place as he looked down at the younger ninja with his odd eyes, "Well if it isn't the container of the Kyuubi. What a pleasant surprise."
Naruto let go of the Kunai, and leaped backwards, drawing a second kunai with his hand. Kakuzo chuckled and looked at the boy. "Giving up your weapon is a big no-no boy. Didn't they ever teach you that?"
Naruto growled, confused by how the man had managed to stop a sharp kunai with his bare hand. He glanced at the hand of his enemy, noticing its color was dark compared to the skin on his wrist. That had to be some sort of jutsu. Still, Naruto smirked at him. "I have a name you know? I'm Naruto Uzumaki! And by the way," Naruto pointed his free hand at Kakuzo, making his hand into the shape of a pretend pistol and moved it as if he had fired it, "Boom."
Kakuzo's eyes barely twitched as a fireball engulfed him as the kunai blew up, and Naruto could have sworn that he heard the man chuckle just as the explosion took place. Frowning, the young blonde ninja, shuffled his feet sideways, trying to get in between Yugito and Kakuzo. Something was telling Nartuo that Kakuzo wouldn't die that easily. There was no way that taking out an Akatsuki member would be that easy.
The fire died down as quickly as it started, leaving behind a cloud of smoke behind. Naruto growled slightly as he heard a chuckle come from the smoke as it cleared away. A moment later, when the smoke dissipated completely, one could see kakuzo, standing in the same spot where he had bee when Nartuo had attacked him, looking no worse for wear, save his Akatsuki cloak which had been scorched in a few places.
Naruto eyed the man wearily, noticing that all of Kakuzo's skin (as far as he could see) had become dark, just like his hand had before. "That's an interesting jutsu you have there."
Kakuzo nodded, looking at the boy with out blinking. "Its called Earth Realease: Earth spear Technique. Its quite useful really. A puny explosive tag wont do much against it."
Naruto chuckle nervously and rolled his neck. "How fun."
Kakuzo took a breath, and got in his attack stance, "Give up boy, you know you can't win. Specially if you are distracted by protecting that girl."
"I wont know that unless I try." Naruto replied, gritting his teeth in anticipation. He knew Kakuzo had a point, at least with regards to having a disadvantage. It was going to be a hard enough fight without having to worry about Yugito. But with Yugito pinned to the wall like that, he would have to stay in between her and Kakuzo, which would limit his movements.
Kakuzo growled and launched himself at Naruto, swinging with his left hand (which had turned a dark grey color once more) at the boy. Naruto dodged the punch swinging his own fist upwards towards the jaw of his aggressor. Just before his fist made contact with the target, the skin of Kakuzo's neck and jaw became dark once more, signifying the hardening of the body. Naruto's fist made contact, but it made no difference to Kakuzo, who simply took the blow without so much as flinching before bringing his knee upwards, and nailing Naruto on his ribcage, making the young ninja skid backwards as he was blown away by the hit.
"Ouch." Naruto grumbled, leaping back into the action by forming four shadow clones and making them rush the enemy. Kakuzo dispelled two of them almost instantly, but the third shadow clone managed to slip by his defenses and slammed a spinning kick at Kakuzo's head, barely making him flinch, before a thick tentacle-like black threads erupted from Kakuzo's arm and stabbed the clone through the ribs, causing it to dispel with a puff of smoke.
"The hell?" Naruto blurted out, looking with surprise at the living thread that was slipping back into Kakuzo's arm. "The hell was that?"
"That," Kakuzo replied smugly, "is my Earth Grudge Fear. Give it up kid, you can't win."
"Fuck that." Naruto said resolutely, forming six more shadow clones and sending them in a charge at Kakuzo who didn't seem bothered by the increase in number of attackers.
In fact, he was quite confident he could dispatch the clones within thirty seconds flat. Until a metallic sphere nailed him on the back and exploded, surrounding him in a thick black cloud of smoke.
Naruto, startled, looked around in time to see a tall blur dash from the same hole where he himself had come from. As it turns out, the blur was 2D, who landed beside Naruto and looked at him briefly, before placing a hand on his mouth to prevent him from making noise. Naruto nodded in understanding. Stealth was what they would be using right now. No time to argue.
They dashed towards Yugito with stealth, doing their best to be as soundless as possible. An instant later they stood beside her, grim expressions upon their faces as they forced themselves to not say or think of anything. They each tore off a kunai from one of her hands, careful to pull the kunai straight out and not cause anymore damage to her hands than necessary. Once the blades had been removed from her hands, Naruto lifted her in his arms in bridal style, while 2D made six more shadow clones, sending them to help Naruto's clones attack a raging Kakuzo, who was still lost in the massive black cloud of smoke that now engulfed half of the room. The entire process between the surprise attack on Kakuzo and the removal of Yugito barely took a dozen seconds to occur, and it was all done in silence.
2D and Naruto darted away now. No words were needed, they just ran, leaping out the same hole which they had used moments ago to interfere with the Akatsuki. Just as they began to head back up the maze, Hidan burst through a wall without warning, blocking the way from which they had originally come from.
"You little shits!" Hidan roared, and charged at them with a pair of kunai in each hand, for his scythe was still in the other chamber, were Kakuzo was busy with a dozen clones.
"Oh, shit!" Naruto exclaimed with surprise, before stopping and turning around, running the opposite direction, heading further downhill while 2D summoned a dozen more shadow clones to keep Hidan busy while he followed Naruto down a maze of sewer systems.
Still, Kakuzo dispatched all twelve clones within three minutes, all be it after getting hit with several kunai which shredded his clothing, and a few wind jutsu which bruised his arms, but otherwise unharmed. Angry, he bolted out the hole in the wall, only to find Hidan fighting another eight clones. "Stop playing around and kill them idiot!"
"Fuck off you bastard!" Hidan replied as he dodged a punch to his face, "You could help me out you know?!"
"Why don't you just use your damn scythe?" Kakuzo growled out, "Those clones are one-hit kills, and are fighting in close quarters. Your scythe should have been excellent for that!"
"Well I would except that I don't have it with me, fuck-face!" Hidan screamed back at him as he got stabbed through a kidney with a kunai, "Ouch! That hurts damn it!"
Kakuzo swore under his breath. Leave it to Hidan to loose his principal weapon that easily. Without delay, Kakuzo jumped in and helped his partner dispatch the remaining clones, and within a minute, the fight was finished. The one-hit kill weakness of the shadow clone had made it easy for the two S-ranked ninja to eliminate them between the two of them.
"Now grab your scythe and let's go. They already have a head start on us." Kakuzo barked out, annoyed that his prey had gotten away. A five minute head start was much more than he would like to be giving to any ninja running away, in particular when the ninjas he was looking for were running away through an underground maze and he had to find them.
Hidan hissed under his breath, bolting into the room where he had fought the Nibi to retrieve his weapon in a hurry. It took him nearly no time at all to find it and take the scythe back into his custody before returning to Kakuzo.
"Got it?" Kakuzo asked bluntly, looking at the three bladed scythe that was now in his partner's hands. "Good. Now lets go."
Without further ado, they started to give chase to their prey, doing their bests to follow the faint and occasional echoes that their prey left behind. Kakuzo refused to loose his price when they had come so close to attaining it, and Hidan, for his part, was more concerned with slicing up the three bastards that were getting away, swearing in a manner that would a sailor shake his head as he chased them with Kkuzo by his side.
The two Akatsuki members were basically on a warpath, though perhaps for somewhat different reasons but to achieve the same end: Capture and subdue their enemy. But they would subdue them with as much pain as they could possibly dispense at their enemies without killing them.
Next time Hidan and Kakuzo met Naruto, 2D, and Yugito, there would be a fight to be remembered by anyone who was witness to it.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Woohoo! It's done! It's done! The latest chapter is done! ~10,000 words! (IT'S OVER 9,000!)
Anyways, I hope you all enjoy it, and pleaseDO LEAVE A REVIEW!
That said, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Any suggestions or ideas or constructive criticism are welcome.
This Dragon is logging out now.