Author's Note: Okay aunt's in recovery so everything's back on track. And now as we finish one arc we start another, but first read and review guys!
The young Genin still couldn't believe their eyes. First their friend Atsuko the quiet, peaceful, shy and insecure pushover for all intents and purposes was now initiating a transformation sequence into a monster. Their other friend, Masunu, choosing to stay behind inside of the massive prison complex and get himself killed for all intents and purposes rather than flee with them to safety.
"Shiro call Yamato! We have to get Masunu out of there!" Tarou stated pointing at the large wooden block seriously.
"Working on it." Shiro stated with his hand over his communicator. "We have a situation sir."
"I heard. I'm on my way." A little bit of distance away from the prison Yamato had already loaded himself up into a catapult and fired himself at the group, landing with a crash there. "Now what's the situation?"
"One injured. Kenta was used as a shield to block some of Atsuko's and Masunu's attacks, I'm in the process of applying medicinal treatment." Shiro explained as he took out his honey salve from his bag. "One going berserk. Atsuko snapped after Kenta got hurt and is now spewing out vast amounts of her unique Chakra blend. One trapped. Masunu trapped himself on the other side of that." Shiro stated pointing over to the stone wall that Masunu erected inside of the prison. "No telling what he's got planned. Finally, one enemy combatant. Rig-Saw's in there as well."
"Looks Grim. But if I am right..." As if Yamato's confirmation were a que of some sort Crimson red colored chakra began to appear around the prison, as if it was being siphoned away from Atsuko and into the prison. "As I thought, this prison that drains away Chakra like a sponge is trying to drain away Atsuko's unimaginable quantities of Chakra, we will not be able to penetrate that easily. Firstly we must locate a pre-existing opening, then I will be able to drain away a sufficient quantity of chakra to create a opening in the chakra cloak to get inside." Yamato explained turning to the Genin.
"Yes Sir!" Takishi stated with a salute.
"Right away Sir!" Tarou also stated with a salute.
After that the two Genin bolted off, Shiro however stayed behind and continued to care for Kenta.
"So now that they are gone you wanna tell me what we're really going to do?" Shiro asked as his silk worms continued to bandage Kenta's wounds.
"What do you mean?" Yamato asked looked down at Shiro.
"I think practically, if there's a chance that I can rescue a team mate then I will, but if I cannot, then I won't." Shiro stated in a almost cold tone of voice.
"I wasn't lying, but the fact of the matter is that with Atsuko's chakra running through that building and the very real possibility that she could start using her nature styles at any moment, then the simple fact is that so much as entering the prison carelessly could prove to be very lethal." Yamato stated looking a the prison grimly.
"So, Masunu is on his own now?" Shiro asked cocking a brow.
"I don't encourage a policy of leaving our people behind Shiro, but yes that is what it's starting to look like." Yamato stated with a hint of anger in his voice.
"Well, near as a I can tell it's what he wanted, lets hope he knows what he's doing." Shiro stated calmly, sounding more concerned about his task at hand than his friend inside of the prison.
True to Shiro's predictions Masunu was calmly analyzing the situation. Firstly he noted that the red chakra on the floor had already eaten through the soles of his sandals, so getting away from it was a must. Secondly Rig-Saw had the same idea as he had, having one of his birds carry him into the air. Masunu grabbed hold of one of the smaller of the summons, big enough to carry a person, but still able to comfortably fly around the room, a person sized bird.
"I don't think so!" Suddenly all of the bird summons that Rig-Saw was not using, including the one that Masunu was on. "No such thing as a free ride kid!"
Thinking fast Masunu summoned a snake to latch onto the bird that Rig-Saw was riding and pulled himself up to him before Rig-Saw could cut the make shift grapple line.
"I could say the same about you."
Before Rig-Saw could attack Masunu a loud noise like a maraca echoed from him, a sound based Genjutsu being used by the rattle snake Masunu had just summoned. Masunu was unaffected, but Rig-Saw was baling over in pain as was his bird. Together all of them were sent crashing back to the ground, with the bird disappearing after hitting the ground. Rig-Saw also make a crack sound after hitting the ground, combined with the presence of the dangerous crimson colored chakra his odds looked bleak so Masunu focused his attention on Atsuko. The situation with her had gotten dire, several lines had formed around her body from the star shaped mark on her neck, and her facial features had contorted into that of angry snarling beast, so it seems that the seal holding her back had been breaking down.
"DIIIIEEEE!" Atsuko screamed in a harsh and demonic voice.
Suddenly the massive amount of chakra that Atsuko had been spewing out turned into wind, a tornado had formed within the prison, and Masunu was sent flying by the powerful red colored wind.
"Damn it she's lost all common sense! I need to end this!" Masunu head a ominous creak sound, looking over at the walls, he saw that the powerful red colored wind was starting to tear the prison apart. "So there's a opening now? Good. If I can get me and Atsuko outside then Yamato can end this madness once and for all."
A task that was easier said than done. At the moment Masunu was being tossed around like a rag doll, and Atsuko was at the center of a spiraling ball of air, so he was cut off on two sides. Instead Masunu grabbed hold of the walk way with both of his hands, climbed underneath it, before he concentrated sufficient Chakra into the balls of his feet to shoot him down to Atsuko's level. Atsuko had already caught on to Masunu, and was caught like a dear in the headlights when he used his Sharingan on her. With that he grabbed her and used his snake to pull both of them outside of the prison.
"Nice work Masunu! I'll take it from here!" Yamato stated forming a aiming sight with his hands.
Atsuko threw Masunu off of her just has a set of dragon like wooden pillars form around Atsuko. Naturally Atsuko attempted to rampage out of them again, that is until Masunu froze her with a genjutsu again.
"DAMN YOU!" Atsuko cursed briefly before the crimson colored chakra was drained out of her body.
After Atsuko collapsed Masunu oversaw the process of resealing her. Lacking the proper materials and equipment to form a seal over her arm he opted to simply just have Shiro put a Gendaichu on her and call it a week. However the group quickly noticed something different about the young girl, a single lock the infamous dark raven colored hair of the Hyuga clan had turned red. Yamato went back inside of the prison looking for Rig-Saw, what was left of him was wrapped up by Shiro in a silk package. Gil was retrieved by Tarou, simply a matter of re-summoning his Saint Bernard who was still attached to the sleeping ninja. Together the six Genin and two Jonin began making another trek through the desert back to Konoha in another of Yamato's wood based vehicles in the process meeting up with a third team sent out to the desert by Konoha. Everyone was quickly rushed back to the village where they received much needed medical treatment. Special care had been with Atsuko, not only for her status as the Hokage's daughter, but also with the all important sealing ritual that would reseal her unique and potent brand of chakra back into her arm.
"Atsuko." Currently the young girl in question was sitting on the front porch of her family's home in Konoha dressed in a white Kimono, her arm resealed under layers of bandages and a brass colored lock.
"Masunu?" Masunu on the other hand was dressed more casually, wearing a plain white shirt with sweat pants and having various parts of his body covered and his arm in a cast. "Did I do that?" Atsuko asked pointing at the arm in question.
"This was from Choza giving me a high five. Apparently I have brittle bone disease, a side effect of my keno therapy treatments. My father says he is working on something to deal with it now. In any case..." Masunu handed Atsuko a envelope from his pocket with the pork ribs symbol. "Choza asked me to give you this."
While Masunu played messenger boy across a the village a deliberate and out right shameful display of ignoring doctor's order's was happening.
"Thirty nine. forty. forty one."
The culprits in question were none other than the infamous Might Gil and Rock Kenta, who in spite of being beaten, battered, bruised and in one case neck braced were in the middle of doing push ups together.
"I can't believe, forty two, that we missed, forty three, three whole days, forty four, and one trip home, forty five, worth of work, forty six, to those evil, forty seven, evil little bugs!" Gil stated while she she counted her push-ups.
"Forty eight, please don't worry, forty nine, Gil. It's about, fifty, time for the Chunin, fifty one, Exams! So we'll, fifty two, get plenty of, fifty three, training in anyway." At this Gil suddenly dropped on the ground with a thud screaming in frustration.
"UGH! THAT MEANS ALL THE BEST TRAINING SPOTS ARE GONNA BE TAKEN! Right no choice but to go find new ones right now!" With this Gil was about to run off again, but instead suddenly collapsed on her bed, observing a flower pot she saw the culprit for the latest of Genjutsu that she was under the influence of. "Damn... Bugs!" Gil cursed before she lost consciousness.
"If you did really care about her then you wouldn't be encouraging her to do her idiotic activities when she is suppose to be resting." Shiro stated as he stroked a Gendaiju in Gil's power pot.
"Mind your own business Shiro!" Kenta growled defensively as he jumped to his feet and glared at Shiro. "What do you want buggy!?"
"It would seem that we have been summoned." Shiro stated handing over a envelope with a pork ribs stamp on it. "Now are you going to come along willingly or am I going to have to knock you out too?"
The two groups from the Hyuga house and hospital respectively met with a third group, firstly consisting of Masunu's remaining team-mates, Takishi and Tarou, as well as members from Team Sarutobi, Shikai and Inoue, who were also joined by a muscular young boy wearing clothing that was several sizes too big for him, especially the Pork Ribs shirt and a green cargo jacket. Also of interesting note was the fact that he wasn't wearing any pants.
"Hello! Welcome to the Pork Ribs guys!" The muscular boy greeted cheerfully.
Shikai was the first to take note of Atsuko's look of perplexed embarrassment and soon noticed the reason why.
"Choza your pants."
"Huh!?" The muscular boy made a confused look before he looked down and saw that he was in his underwear. "NOT AGAIN!" The young boy shouted while he rushed back into the building.
Atsuko, still confused and her mouth hanging open, pointed into the establishment with a puzzled expression with Shikai nodding confirming that was indeed Choza. With the various group members walking into the building and taking a seat the boy that was apparently Choza came with a apron tied around him.
"Don't worry it's on the house! After everything that you guys went through I'm covering all the charges!" Choza stated, turning around to leave with him having been revealed to have put on some cargo shorts. "Uh Shikai..." Atsuko started but didn't finish.
"Let me guess 'Why isn't Choza wearing any pants?' Well he was wearing them when he came here but after he dropped a few dress sizes they didn't fit him any more." Shikai explained casually with Atsuko only becoming more confused.
"Dropped some dress sizes?" Atsuko asked with her head tilted in a dumb founded look.
"Sorry I thought you knew, the Akimichi clan that Choza comes from specializes in turning their body fat into Chakra. Choza's mother however trained as part of a rather prestigious cooking Ninja academy from Kumogakure that specializes in infusing chakra into food so that it helps people's recovery rates and taught him those skills. Because he cooked all the food for us he used up all of his chakra reserves and burned off every excess drop of fat in his body." Shikai explained as if this bizarre super weight loss secret was normal.
"Coming up!" Choza stated carrying several armfuls of food and putting them on the grill that was also the table, also he wasn't wearing pants again.
"Choza you left your pants in the kitchen again." Shikai stated amused.
Choza muttered curse and ran back into the kitchen.
While the young Genin were having fun at Choza's expense Naruto and Shikamaru was having a much more serious meeting with his top weapon's manufacturer
"Ten-Ten, what do you make of this?" Naruto asked holding the burnt and melted remains of Rig-Saw's signature weapon.
The Woman in question was a slender one with short brown hair and a clear fondness for pink chinese styled clothing.
"You can tell a lot from a weapon about where it was made and who made it. For example." Ten-Ten, ignoring the mangled mess that had been presented to her, instead picked up a shield like contraption that was on another table. "This little toy that we picked up during the attack on the village is clearly based on Io's Tsurukame design. However..." Ten-Ten popped opened the launcher and directed Naruto's attention to it with her finger. "The metal is tinted a certain shade from where it was smith-ed..." Next Ten-Ten removed part of the casing revealing a set of wires inside of it. "It's wired Lightning Village styled, to make use of the full power of their lightning chakra..." Finally Ten-Ten turned the weapon over revealing it's wooden grip. "This foul smelling thing came from the Loki tree, it starts soft but harden's to the user's grip over time. All this information places it's manufacturer's headquarters here." Ten-Ten stated, her finger on a spot on the map that already had a big black X marked on it.
"Yes so you've told us the last time. But what we need to know is where this came from!?" Shikamaru stated his finger press firmly on the mangled thing that was once Rig-Saw's weapon of choice.
A curious hmm was let out through the air as Ten-Ten removed a panel and unscrewed a gear.
"Lightning village styled gear piece." Ten-Ten commented giving the Gear a lick.
"We'll just leave you to it." Naruto stated as he and Shikamaru awkwardly back out of the shop.
"So then." Shikamaru began as the two of them walked away. "The Chunin Exams."
While Naruto had his meeting work of a different kind was going on back at the ruins of the Iron Cauldron Prison.
"What do you want with this anyway?" A laborer asked, his axe resting inside of a tree he had chopped down that really had no business being there out in the middle of the barren wasteland desert.
"I want you to crack it open." A man with ghostly white hair stated as he stood motionless a little bit away.
Shrugging his shoulders and giving the tree a few more good swings it was officially cracked open. Then the Man saw what his employer wanted with it, the mangled and mutilated body of a woman inside of the tree.
"Excellent work, your payment." The employer stated jovially tossing a bundle of money onto the corpse.
Thinking nothing of it the disturbed man picked up the money, and screamed in terror as the corpse's hand reached out and grabbed him, then screamed in pain as his body was absorbed into the corpse. The revived form of the bone woman simply sat down on her former coffin counting the money.
"So then... does this mean I'm not dead?"
Review Section:
Guests: Calling what Masunu has a Curse mark is slightly inaccurate. The original Curse mark got it's name because it was designed to wear down the user's personality and replace it with Orochimaru's via gradually replacing one's chakra with Orochimaru's infused with Natural Energy. What Masunu has replaces his chakra with his own Chakra infused with Natural energy. It's basically the power up without putting the user under the control of Orochimaru. And other Guest, I appreciate your words, but I still can't do comic form.
Just a Reader: Ah thanks for clearing that up.