A/N: HEY everyone! I'm back with a new chapter and boy am I happy about it. Sometimes I feel like the reader instead of the author because just as excited to find out whats going to happen next just as much as you guys. Sorry for the small delay but that Hurricane Sandy is a huge B word. Luckily my family and I were okay but I hope that the other people who were not as fortunate as my family are doing okay and are safe. Besides that little moment please enjoy this new Chapter!
Chapter 21-The Battle Royale Begins
Ryuichi narrowed his eyes at the Kunoichi who just took out one of the clones that Fumio created. How hard was it to take down five little Kunoichi and their tiny pets? 'Damn them….'
Sakura cracked her knuckles and smirked at the clone standing in front of her. "Ready…?" Sakura didn't know why but…..deep down inside she felt some overwhelming power, connecting with her and guiding her through this fight. It gave her this confidence that this was a match that she could easily beat.
The clone returned the smirk and crossed his arms. "Whenever you're ready…." He smirked and rushed at the pink haired Kunoichi. Sakura rolled to the side and tossed four kunai at the clone, which deflected them easily. Sakura frowned and stood back on her feet. Thanks to the training by Lady Tsunade, Sakura was able to read the moves of the clone with slight ease and knew that he was preparing a jutsu. "DEMON EARTH: DIRT BULLET!" He shouted as he spat from his mouth a bullet of earth at Sakura. Sakura pounded her fist into her palm and pulled back.
"HAAA!" She roared before slamming her fist into the earth bullet, cracking it into large pieces. She continuing to run at the clone but unfortunately the clone jumped over her, landing to the over side of the arena. Sakura jumped high into the air and thrust her fist towards him but missed slightly, creating a small crater into the ground. As she was on the ground she swiped her foot to knock him down then jumped out of the crater and into the air. "HEAVENS FOOT OF PAIN!" Sakura shouted as she slammed her heel into the ground, missing him completely, but smashing it beneath her instead. Sakura narrowed her eyes at the incredibly fast clone of the demon. The crowd went wild with howls and roars as the clone smirked at Sakura.
"Not bad for a Kunoichi….." The clone said with a bored look on his face.
Sakura narrowed her eyes. "I'm not just a Kunoichi you know." Sakura hated that phrase with a passion. To say 'not bad for a Kunoichi' was like saying it is surprising to see a Kunoichi show skill or be strong, which was a horrible stereotype that every single Kunoichi had to prove wrong. It was actually quite sad; a Kunoichi has to work harder just to prove that she's more than a pretty face or a medic. They cannot show emotion as freely as a male shinobi in fear that they will be looked down upon. Sakura was tired of constantly proving others wrong…..of trying to break their sexist opinion. So to say 'Not bad for a Kunoichi' was like a match to Sakura's fury.
"Quite true….you a most unattractive Kunoichi as well." As soon as he said those words it was like the air within the arena grew thin. Ino looked over at Sakura than back at the clone with fear. 'What has he done….?!' Though Sakura likes to believe that a Kunoichi was just as good as a male shinobi….she was still a woman and was not happy that someone would call her unattractive. The fact that she has both the same temper and strength as the Hokage herself was not making this situation any better. There was once an accident like this that they all had the displeasure of experiencing once before, a trip a restaurant were a man that was at first flirting with the Haruno decided to insult her after she rejected him…let's just say they are still making payments to the restaurant.
"Everyone step back!" Ino grabbed Kimi and pushed everyone to the wall. Temari knew that look in Sakura's eyes and frowned. 'Great….'
"What….did you say….?" Sakura said slowly, her fist balling with restraint anger.
"I merely spoke the tru-."The clone stopped seeing the aura around Sakura grow more dark and murderous.
Ino bit her lip and pushed to the wall more. 'This is not going to end well.'
The ground around Sakura cracked beneath her feet as she looked up at the clone with eyes ready for blood. "You…..you…..ASSHOLE!" She roared as loud as the Avdimi and rushed at the clone. The clone tried to run but was too slow as she kneed him in his stomach. She roughly brought his head up and pounded her fist into his face. The clone flow over to the over end of arena and stood up slowly with fear in his eyes. 'What kind of monster…?!' He was however not the only one with fear clenching his heart. Ryuichi watched with widened eyes seeing the young Kunoichi attack the clone with nothing but anger in her eyes. 'So….evil….so….' Sakura growled as she ran onto the wall and towards the clone.
"CHAAAAAAAA!" She shouted as she continued to run at him. As soon as she was close to him she flipped above him and pulled her fist back. "CHERRY….." Ino knew this attack and quickly whispered to Temari who nodded and pulled out her fan.
"Get behind my fan!" They all nodded and crouched behind her fan, readying themselves for the enviable.
"…..BLOSSOM IMPACT!" Sakura roared with anger as she slammed her fist onto the clones head, crushing not just his bones but entire body, and created a huge shock wave into the ground, pulverizing it and shooting out large parts of the arena ground at the audience, destroying not only the ground but some of the audience as well. Ryuichi and Hitoshi quickly jumped out of the booth and onto the Avdimi as a large piece of the ground has crashed into it and causing it to fall to the ground below them. Ryuichi quickly stood up and ran over to see Sakura crouched with her fist into the ground. Sakura stood up to see the other clones standing onto the railings with shock on their faces. Sakura stood up and brushed the dirt off of her shoulder. "Don't ever….say that to me again."
Deadly Kunoichi 5
Choji was confused to say the least. He has known Shikamaru his whole life and yet still the Nara has this strange ability to confuse him greatly. It's been a while since the girls left on their journey and already everyone was starting to express their discomfort. Lady Tsunade has been doing nothing but paper work after paper work, showing nearly no emotions expect fatigue and worry. Kakashi and the other Sensei have been uncontrollably quiet and stoic, even Gai was less boastful and loud as his usual self would be. Neji and the whole Hyuga clan have been silent and cold, almost ghost like. Kiba, Lee and Shino have become zombies in a sense, their minds filled with worry for their traveling teammates. Yet Shikamaru, who was presumably in a relationship with their teammate, has shown little to no actual emotion since their teammate's departure. Choji was no fool and knew that Shikamaru was probably hiding his emotions but it still bugged him that Shikamaru can't even confide to him on what he was feeling, like he didn't trust him or something. At the moment Choji and Shikamaru were chosen to be border patrol and were camping out in the forest.
"Man, Border patrol is such a drag." Shikamaru complained as he sat down around the camp fire. Choji nodded silently and pulled out his sleeping bags Shikamaru glanced over at Choji with a confused look in his eyes. "….But I guess it can't be help….."
"I guess it can't….."He said softly. Why was Choji acting so quiet, like he did something wrong. "Shikamaru….?"
"What?"
Choji glanced over at him. "How do you think Ino's doing?" Choji looked to see if there was any once of emotion in his eyes but unfortunately he was met with the same gaze that he usually gives him.
Shikamaru sighed and laid back down onto the ground. "I don't know….knowing her she's probably walking around telling everyone what to do or arguing with Sakura." Choji frowned and looked away.
"Yeah I guess….." Choji mumbled. How can Shikamaru be so cool about this? Ino is out there risking her life and he's acting like he doesn't even care if she died or something. Choji didn't know if Shikamaru was trying way too hard to hide his true feelings or if that whole thing with Ino meant nothing to him but Choji was sure about to find out. "Dude, what the hell is wrong with you?"
Shikamaru raised his eye brow at his friend. "What are you talking about?"
Choji sighed. "Ino is out there risking her butt for the world and you are just sitting there like nothing ever happened between you two…..did something happen between you two? Shikamaru cleared his throat and looked away. "Okay so something did happen and yet you're sitting here like some bored idiot."
"Well what do you want me to do?" Shikamaru turned back to face his friend. "Going around and moping like everyone else is doing is not going to change anything, it isn't going to make them come back any faster." Choji was about to respond but found that there was some truth to what he was saying. Still a little emotion wouldn't hurt anyone will it? "Besides, Ino isn't one to go and lose to someone without a fight so I'm pretty positive she's not dying out there." Shikamaru yawned. "Now if that's all you're going to ask me, I can take the first watch." Choji wanted to continue with their small chat but sighed knowing that he wasn't going to get anything out of his comrade tonight.
"Fine….." Choji said then started to move himself into their tent. Choji felt something in Shikamaru's voice. He didn't know what it was but it hurt him on the inside. He truly wanted to go and ask his friend if he was okay but knew that he was not going to get much of a reaction or answer. Shikamaru was right about something. Ino was never one to step down even to the toughest of opponents so she defiantly wasn't one to be intimidated or afraid of these Avdimi that they were going to have to face. This brought some ease to Choji's mind but not much, just enough for him to sleep at night.
It was late at night, at Choji assumed it was, until he awoke to hear strange noises from outside. Years of training and practice has taught Choji to never trust the darkness of the woods, in fear that Ninja might be using it as a hiding place. So the large shinobi quickly grabbed his kunai from his pouch that lay next to him and slowly moved out of the woods. He looked around to see that Shikamaru was nowhere to be found and worry started to clench his heart. He was about to shout his name when the noises came again. 'It sounds like…..' Choji turned his body to the direction of the noise, which seemed to be somewhere near the river that they stopped by and quickly hid his chakra presence and used his well-trained stealth to hide within the shadows of the trees. As he walked closer to the noise he figured out that it was Shikamaru but….what was he doing. Choji mentally gasped seeing Shikamaru crouched with his head in between his knees. Luckily his back faced him or he might have seen him sneaking up behind a tree. 'He's…..crying…..'
"I-Ino…." He muttered into the night sky. He could not help it; the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes finally released and fell onto his thighs. He cursed himself for showing such a troublesome emotion but he could not help but release his built up emotions. He knew that crying was not going to solve anything….That Ino was not going to magically sense his feelings and return to him. She couldn't even if she did anyway, this was something that she had to do, that she was born to do. He understood that and believed that she could do it but…it still hurt...to have to wake each day and go to his team only to find her not there….it was starting to become too much for him to bear. He couldn't even sleep without seeing her grinning face haunting his dreams. He bit his lip as more tears fell from his eyes.
Choji watched his friend releasing all his emotions and sighed. How could he think that Shikamaru didn't care? He should have known that Shikamaru was just holding his emotions back like always. It was good however to see him releasing them, holding in emotions is never good. Choji knew that Shikamaru right now needed to be alone and slowly started to walk back when he accidently snapped on a branch, alerting Shikamaru.
"Choji….?" The large ninja cursed in his head and turned around to glance at his teammate, who right looked like a wreck.
"Hey Shikamaru….." Choji walked over and sat down next to him. "I guess you really do miss Ino."
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes. "Of course I miss her…..I think I love her….." Shikamaru admitted. That was a huge shock for the Akimichi who never thought that the words love her would ever come out of the Nara's mouth.
"Dude….seriously?" Choji asked subconsciously.
"Yeah…..I thought that I…..you know liked Temari but…." Shikamaru looked down. "…..I just never felt this way before and…." Shikamaru took a deep breath. "….Just for her to leave not knowing when she'll come back…." Choji nodded.
"Shikamaru, remember what you said earlier? She's too stubborn to die out there. She'll be back in no time." Shikamaru sighed.
"I know that but I still can't help feeling this way." Choji chuckled.
"Guess boyfriends get like that when they're girlfriends off saving the world."
Shikamaru leaned back. "It's such a drag being the boyfriend of a Kunoichi Warrior." Choji and Shikamaru laughed together. Shikamaru felt like such an idiot. Why would he bottle up his emotions when he had Choji to confide to? Thanks to his best friend the horrible feeling had subside and he started to feel a whole lot better than he did before. "Hey Choji….Thanks."
Choji smiled at his friend and lightly tap him on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, what are friends for." Shikamaru nodded and stood up.
"Well I don't know about you but I can sure use some sleep."
I'll take the rest of the night." Choji offered. Shikamaru thanked him and started to walk back to the camp site. Choji looked up in the sky and smiled. 'Ino…..come back soon….'
Deadly Kunoichi 5
Ryuichi was starting to get frustrated and Hitoshi could see it in his eyes. His brother was even more worried for the Kunoichi, knowing that when his brother gets frustrated things start to get more violent and rough. Sakura ran back over to the other Kunoichi and smiled.
Ino moved from behind Temari's back and sighed. "Geez Sakura what the hell?" Ino shouted.
Sakura looked around the arena, well what was left of it, and chuckled nervously. "I um guess I did go a little overboard."
Kamatari rolled his eyes. "A little defiantly doesn't define what you did." He muttered to himself. His attention quickly changed however to the clones standing before them.
One of the Fumio clones stepped ahead and chuckled evilly. "I guess you aren't so bad after all." He said to Sakura. "But you're still not up to prior to the original Kunoichi Warrior."
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Like I have to prove myself to the likes of you." Ino crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out.
"Count the points Worm boy, we already took out two of your little clones." Fumio frowned.
"You are most annoying….." This comment caused the cheerful blond to narrow her eyes and huffed.
"You little-." She shouted as she rushed at him. Ino stepped back as she came close to him and send a kick to his head. The clone stepped back and dodged her attack then grabbed her foot. Ino growled and spun on her hands, catching him off his feet, and sent her other foot to his hip. She jumped back onto her feet and quickly pulled out a Kunai. The clone stumbled onto his feet and growled in anger. This amused Ino who was already running at him with her Kunai in hand. Unfortunately the clone grabbed her arm and slammed his fist to her cheek, sending her flying over to the other girls.
"INO!" Sakura knelt down her friend and narrowed her eyes. Tenten saw this and frowned. 'Bastard….!' She thought before stepping in front of the two Kunoichi.
"This guy is starting to bug me…." She pulled out two scrolls and rolled them out, summoning two twin swords. "….Time for me to step in." She said then quickly jumped over to the clone. The clone summoned his own sword and clashed with Tenten's. Tenten and the clone continued to clash at each other until Tenten flipped back and summoned her swords away. Pulling out another scroll and summoning a Manriki-gusari. She smirked as she swung it around before whipping it over to the clone's sword. Pulling back, she pulled the sword out of his hand and threw it to the wall of the arena. "It's time for you to meet The Weapon Mistress of Konoha!"
"Weapon Mistress of Konoha?" The clone chuckled. "What a stupid title." The clone waited to see her response but was surprised at how her only response was a smirk and a shook of her head.
"You're insulting me when you have the title 'Demon Death Worm'" the teenage said with a small chuckle at the end. The Fumio clone narrowed his eyes and frowned. "But enough talk, let's play." She swung her weapon around skillfully and ran towards him once more. Sliding in between his legs, she stood back up and started to whip him around, which he was unfortunately dodging. She jumped back and summoned her weapon away and brought out another scroll. Suddenly a thought came to her and a smirk grew on her face. "Ken!" Ken looked up and nodded, forming his hands into a hand sign and concentrated chakra in his body. Tenten took a deep breath and replaced her scroll with another small one. She rolled it out and summoned a small dagger and rushed at the clone with amazing speed. The clone continued to jump and dodge her blade until he jumped over a large crack in the ground and landed on an upright piece of the arena. Tenten quickly glanced at Ken who nodded quickly.
"EARTH STYLE: BAMBOO NEEDLES!" Suddenly below The clones feet small Bamboo pieces grew from the ground and stabbed into his feet, sending a large amount of pain towards the clone. Ken quickly preformed more hand signs. "EARTH STYLE: BAMBOO CHAINS!" The clone growled as tiny pieces of Bamboo with chains attached to them wrapped themselves around the clone and pulled him to his knees.
Tenten saw her chance and leaped high within the air and pulled out the large scroll that she now recently carried around. "MANIPULATED TOOLS: HEAVENLY CHAIN OF DESTRUCTION!" She released the scroll over the clone and from the scroll it quickly began to rain down large amounts of weapons that were so fast that they appeared as white streaks falling from the sky. All they could hear was that agonizing shouts of pain from the clone. Tenten landed gracefully on the ground and looked to see the clone starting to disintegrate and disappear. Tenten ran over to the girls and grinned.
"Tenten when did you create that technique?" Hinata asked with awe. Hinata and Tenten train a lot together but Hinata has never saw such a move coming from the weapon mistress.
Tenten chuckled and scratched the back of her head. "Well I kinda was practicing it solo…..you know as a surprise." Hinata smiled and nodded.
The remaining clone and the original glanced at each other with frustrated expressions on their faces. The final clone sighed and jumped down to the destroyed battle field.
"It seems you Kunoichi are proving most….troublesome…..but I will not let you do to me what you did to the other clones." Hinata looked over at Temari and nodded at her. Temari saw the look in Hinata's eyes and nodded as well before walking up with her to the clone. This confused the other three Kunoichi and their animals. They never truly saw Hinata and Temari dueling in a battle together so this was a strange sight to see.
"Well I think that we might have a little issue than…..Because like the other clones we're going to grind you into the dust." Temari said as she flipped her fan in front of her. Hinata nodded at Temari's statement and positioned herself into the gentle fist stance. The demon looked at the pair with a look of hate in his eyes.
"You….the blue haired one….you are Karena are you not?" Hinata blushed and nodded slowly. This from what Hinata and the other girls were seeing that was not the right answer. "That witch in sheep's clothing, slipping her hands into the proud race of demons!" Hinata was surprised to hear this about her former life. From what the other animals have said Karena sound like a truly kind person.
"What are you-?"
"That black hearted harlot dared to come between a true demon and his race, sickening bitch!" Temari narrowed her eyes and stepped in front of Hinata.
"I don't know who you think you are but if you continue talking you might regret it." Temari said with killing intent in her voice. Makena flew over to Hinata and glared at the clone with heated hate.
"How dare you talk about Lady Karena in such a manner of disrespect?! She has done nothing wrong and-."
"Please, if you were her partner and since you all once traveled with her…..then you all must know of her secret." Hinata quickly glanced around to see that the animals had concerned and saddened looks on their faces. 'What is he talking about….?'
"Enough!" Temari raised her fan high in the air. "Hinata don't think too into this now, focus on the enemy!" Hinata looked up at Temari and nodded slowly, returning to the gentle fist stance. "WIND RELEASE: CAST NET!" She shouted as she swung her fan at the clone with strong winds connected together like a net slammed into the clone. The clone sunk into the ground, escaping from the attack. Hinata quickly activated her Byakugan and searched the ground for their opponent.
"Temari below you!" Temari flipped back just as the clone broke from the ground with a sword in his hand. Hinata ran over to the clone and quickly began attack him with her gentle fist technique. Hinata continued to gracefully dodge his attacks but unfortunately he was doing the same which was causing Hinata to become slightly annoyed. Eventually Hinata saw an opening and began releasing chakra into her palm. "EIGHT TRIGRAMS VACCUUM PALM!" Hinata slammed her palm into his chest and sent him flying away. Hinata looked over at Temari and started to communicate with her through her eyes. Temari understood and pulled back her fan to reveal smaller fans from her holster. Makena and Kamatari knew what they were going to do and quickly got into their fighting positions. Hinata rushed at the clone and quickly starter to attack him once more with her palms aiming at his vital organs. The clone continued dodging but was surprised to see that Makena flying over attacking him as well with her talons. The barrage seemed to continue with Hinata flipping back as Temari slipped over and began attacking him as well with her fans, which seemed to have had sharp needles embedded in them. Kamatari also began attacking him as well but with his own sickle. What was starting to confuse the clone was that it seemed as if they were intentionally misses him or letting him dodge their attacks, but why.
Sakura was thinking almost the exact same thing. To her and everyone else it seemed like they were merely playing with him or something. Being that this is actually the first time that Hinata and Temari have been seen in battle together without them in with them, Sakura could not figure out what her friends were playing, making this match even more confusing and tension rising. Eventually the barrage ended and they all jumped back as well. The clone was about to run forward when he found that he could no longer move his body. 'What….but they did not attack me…!'
"I bet you're wondering why you can no longer move around, aren't you." Temari smirked.
Hinata stepped next to Temari and cleared her throat. "You see…..during our barrage of attacks, we intentionally did not hit you so that you would not be suspicious of our true motive."
"What the hell did you do?!"
You see since our Chakra natures are very similar being that the air is consisted of water just as the water is consisted of air, we decided to use this knowledge to our advantage." Temari began. "I'm sure that you do not know of the gentle fist style or the Byakugan…." Temari turned to Hinata.
"You see I am from a large clan called the Hyuga which possess the ability to see a person's chakra network and a vision of 360 degrees with a Kekkai genkai known as the Byakugan. We also practice a fighting style known as the Gentle fist which inflicts internal damage to the Chakra Pathway System, which also attacks the vital organs that are connected to the network as will. With the Byakugan I can see your Chakra network with complete ease and close it off with little effort." Hinata said with a book read tone in her voice. Constantly being taught about her clan's power has made explaining it seem so emotionless.
"What's interesting with Hinata's gentle fist is that even though the attack may not appear to have hit you does not mean that the attack had didn't land or that she didn't hit her mark. By mere brushing of their arm, the chakra released from her palm is strong enough to disrupt your systems, like right now for example."
"But with my demon blood I could have easily released myself from her chakra infected attack, yet here I am motionless!"
"Temari is a master with her chakra natural. She can influence it with such ease that she no longer truly needs to use much effort or chakra into creating a large gust of wind from her fan. What also comes with her chakra natural is the pure ability of air being undetectable and unseen to the naked eye. Wind blowing at you is normal so you don't think much of it when you feel it, which gives a wind release user the element of surprise. Unlike a water dragon or a fire ball heading towards you is something that you can see clearly thus giving you the chance to invade. This natural undetectable skill makes her chakra natural the perfect stealth attack."
"What does that have to do with me not moving?!" The clone roared in anger.
Hinata continued. "As Temari started attacking you with her fans she let a small amount of chakra controlled wind out that seeped into your body as you stated to lose breath from our many attacks. By entering into your body it quickly made its way into your systems and combined with my own chakra that let in with my Vacuum palm earlier plus the chakra that I entered into your body during that barrage to shock your systems with twice as much strength."
"Which happen to have been strong enough to keep you in place…?" Temari chuckled. "Now….let us show you another one of our combination technique that we created." Temari smiled at Hinata who nodded. Hinata took a deep breath and quickly performed small hand signs. "WATER STYLE: SOARING WATER BIRD!" Hinata shouted as a large body of water shaped as a bird shot at the clone. Temari quickly brought out her fan and raised it above her shoulder.
"WIND RELEASE: ROARING WIND WEASEL!" She swung her fan and released a large gust of wind shaped as a bird and combined it with Hinata's water bird creating an even larger and sharper form of their attacks. The bird like weasel roared and flew down to the clone, slamming its whole body upon its victim. The clone shouted in pain as his whole body was sliced up and crushed by the water and wind, leaving nothing besides a large crater that only added to the already destroyed battle ground.
Temari nodded at Hinata who smiled and giggled with pride. The pair walked back over to their teammates who seemed surprised to say the least.
"Hinata…." Tenten said with disbelief. "How did…when did….?"
Hinata giggled. "We actually h-have been training to perfect that for a long time….since the chunin exams actually."
"I came up to Hinata and asked if she wanted to train together, when we did we found out how similar our chakra naturals are and how they complement each other, being how their water in the air and air in the water."
"So we began training together to try and find a good combination technique like what you did with Neji and me." Tenten nodded with a smile.
"Well I for one am impressed." Tenten said cheerfully. They all stopped talking when they saw Fumio jumping down with anger in his eyes.
"You may have defeated my clones….but you have yet to dance with me…." Sakura and the others glanced at each other and smirked.
"Bring it on worm boy!" Ino and Sierra said in unison. Fumio smirk widened as his eyes started to glow a bright red. 'Maybe we should have kept out mouths shut…..' They both thought at the same time, starting to wonder if they were prepared to fight an actual demon.
A/N: For all of you wondering what a Manriki-gusari is it's like a chain whip thing. Anyways here it is. I am very happy about this chapter and I hope that you all are happy with it as well. I would also like to thank xBeautifulCherryBlossomx for that little info on Sakura lol it really got me into researching her more and I think that I have to say my opinion on Sakura completely changed. That girl is NICE I mean I'm starting to really like her (Plus it's fun writing her getting mad cuz when she mad she MAD) Anyways I hope that you all enjoyed and I hope that you all come back for some more action packed adventures. Oh and on another note, that whole switch between Konoha and The girls will now to deplete as they get more and more into their journey and start to focus less on how others are feeling about them leaving and more on the Journey itself and them trying to reach their goals. But besides that I think that's all I have to say…..Till next time! XD