Gah! Writer's block suxxxx! Anyways, here's the next chapter.
Update on the art contest thing (at least, my part in it): gonna start on the rough sketch tomorrow. I thought I did a good one several weeks ago, but then I looked at it again today. Bleah. Also thought I was gonna do the whole thing in Photoshop too, but there's not enough time left for anything I would find satisfactory, so I'll stoop to... (shudder) colored lineart... in order to make my own damn deadline. Oh well, life goes on...
But you don't wanna hear (or read) my ranting! Go on, read little ones, read!
disclaimer (I should have put this in the story description so I didn't have to say this every time): I don't own Naruto. Period. Crap. Also: swearing ahead!
Naruto and Hinata ran for their lives. Ever since Silba had transformed herself into a full-fledged wolf, any attack with her on the receiving end failed miserably. The proximity of iron was negated completely, meaning the only option to reveal her human form was physical contact with either iron or silver. To make matters worse, the gigantic plume of fog that made up the massive wolf version acted much like her mist form; it could separate, twist and turn, or dissipate entirely and come together somewhere else, except this time the 'mist' was corporeal- any glancing blow was a solid hit. Couple the indefinite wolf-like form with added speed, reaction time, and strength made the legendary creature all but invincible. In short, the eastern duo had no way of combating her.
"Duck!" Hinata yelled, Byakugan observing a rush of furry mist flying towards them.
Naruto swung three tails behind the blue-haired Hyuuga; two to act as a shield and one to hook her around the waist and pull her out of the way. The instant afterwards brought the mist dissolving against the energy appendages and flowing around it, redirecting itself in a frantic attempt to touch any flesh. Uzi stabbed at the thick fog with Sasuke's sword and caused the haze to spiral away and return to the advancing form of the misty she-wolf.
The lupus, breaking from its great stride, leapt forward in a sudden surge of haste. The indeterminate mouth opened and turned inside out, spewing forth a heavy misty form of a woman in tan pants, a tattered overcoat, and thick leather boots. Silba charged forward, zigzagging through a salvo of Naruto's slicing airborne energy as the fog drifted out of her hazy form and flew forward to catch up. She suddenly split into several twirling pillars of opaque haze and flowed untouched through a second and third wave of the sharpened energy.
When her golden eyes became visible and the solid mist came together to form hair, the red-eyed easterner struck the stone tiles with his right arm. Energy crackled forth from his elongated tattoos onto the ground and shot forward with incredible speed. Silba decided to take this moment to break her enemy.
"Not that this could hurt me in this form anyway," she thought as several beams of jagged chakra passed harmlessly through the dense fog, barely disturbing the mist. She quickly formulated her next move as the final column of piercing energy moved against her. "Let this pass through then I'll move through the cracks… SHIT!!"
The final blade of red energy passed through the fog of her left shoulder and deposited what Silba failed to see in time; a tiny splinter of silver. Her body suddenly materialized and she plummeted backwards shrieking in pain. Extended exposure to silver was lethal to lycanthropes, but only because of the pain it induced. As the miniscule hunk of metal caused an incredible burning sensation that spread with her shoulder being the epicenter, she frantically clawed the field surgeon pack on her belt and yanked loose a long set of sharp medical pliers. Amidst her involuntary convulsions and cursing, she stabbed the tool into her shoulder, clamped down on the offending object, pulled it free, then tossed it and the tool to the side. Desperately trying to slow her rapid breathing, she stood to her feet while pounding the stone wall and floor in an attempt to distract herself from the dissipating pain.
Hinata was in her face before the she-wolf even noticed. The Hyuuga struck the smoking wound to further aggravate the lycanthrope. The silver-haired soldier scooted back on her feet, clutching her shoulder and screaming with newfound pain. The white-eyed easterner was just in reach of Silba's extended leg, so she leaned forward and tapped a finger on her opponent's knee. It instinctively shot up and grazed her chin as she pulled back, but it was much weaker than it should have been, and the golden-eyed woman's face portrayed her newest discomfort in the action.
Naruto flew forward to intercept the soldier woman. She retreated, but only in her normal mist form. "The pain must have put a drain on her," Uzi thought. He thumbed an iron knife he pulled off a dead vampire and launched it at her. The haze twirled to avoid the blade but was foiled as a second iron projectile thrown by the blue-haired woman flew over her, phasing her back into corporeal form. She was frozen for only a moment before attempting to revert to the relative safety of her mist, but that moment was all Uzumaki needed.
He slammed her in the chest with the razor tattooed hand, unleashing a barrage of slicing energy onto her before she could embrace her hazy form. She did so before the energy cut too deeply and scaled a cathedral-like wall with as much haste as she could muster. Naruto utilized his tails as spider legs and gave chase with Hinata following closely behind.
Her Byakugan active, she had been taking a good look at that second chakra network that resided within Silba whenever she was in human form. It was small, yet she was slowly realizing what it really was. "Does she know this?" the Hyuuga woman wondered as she observed the vertical battle.
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The back and forth game of cat and mouse between Silba and the eastern duo went on for a few more hours. Since the she-wolf's silver induced injury, the moon was hidden behind the clouds, never to fully unveil itself for the rest of the night. As a consequence, the golden-eyed soldier was unable to transform into her solid haze wolf version. The energy required to do so without the mystical powers of the moon were too much for her, especially in her current condition.
She felt sick to her stomach. It was both annoying and unnerving, as she couldn't focus completely on the battle at hand and was being hindered during combat by nausea. She had no idea why her status was in such poor shape, but that wasn't her first and foremost worry.
She leapt to the side on their current parapet to dodge an energy whip. Her situation was becoming more and more grim. Lycanthropes were strong, but she wasn't nearly strong enough to take on Uzi if this battle was allowed to continue any further. To her unpleasant surprise, his endurance was far superior to her own.
Naruto launched a set of iron blades dipped in wolfsbane towards her. She dropped to the ground and reverted to mist, staying as low to the ground as possible. Silver wasn't instantly lethal to her kind, but wolfsbane was damn close. As soon as the barrage passed she came together and leapt back, hurling her combat knife towards the red-eyed blonde. He caught it by the hilt and she tried to retrieve it by reeling in the wires she had recently acquired and wound around the handle, but Uzi twirled the wire around his right arm, energy tattoos protecting the limb against any possible injury.
Silba steeled herself against her exhaustion and rose up, yanking back on the wires hard enough to cause the blonde easterner to stumble as his grip was loosened and the metal wiring was unbound from his arm, slicing it open in long smooth cuts. She bolted forward, grasped her returning knife, and continued onward to drive the blade into Naruto. She noticed through the opening in his energy appendages that his right arm was smoking. "His wounds are healing!!" She did not cut off her attack upon this realization, however. She burst into mist and retreated when she saw his azure and crimson eyes burning brighter than usual.
She landed on an outcropping on the wall a good fifty feet from the easterner. She didn't know what the brighter red eyes signified, but red-eyes always seemed more… coordinated when such a thing occurred. She began to eye her surroundings carefully for a surprise attack.
Hinata forced the she-wolf to move when she launched a series of silver needles at her. Silba dodged to her right back onto the outdoor walkway, picking up a gun she saw partially hidden underneath a fallen lycanthrope. She raised the pistol and took aim at the nearby Hyuuga, squeezing the trigger ever so slightly…
Her attack was instantly halted as a salvo of chains suddenly appeared from her peripheral vision and surrounded her. She burst into haze and attempted to move through the grid like pattern created by the metal links, but upon coming into close proximity with them, she reverted back to human form. "Iron!!" she realized with overwhelming dread as the chains successfully bound her to the stone wall.
"Vahre Blus," Naruto turned to the owner of the iron links, "Thanks for the help!"
"Not a problem," replied the vampiric red-eye. He had no apparent wounds but was drenched with blood nonetheless. He threw the ends of his chains to the ground and they fused to the stone, locking the golden-eyed woman in place. "She's caused a lot of problems for us." With that, he turned and leapt off the bridge, leaving his eastern friend to deal with the invasion's leader.
"Now, Silba," Uzi approached the defeated she-wolf, cracking his knuckles, "Looks like you're down for the count."
She didn't bother to respond. She lowered her head in submission to whatever punishment lay ahead.
The blonde red-eye sighed and plucked the werewolf's knife from the ground. "Unfortunately, it doesn't look like you'll just give up and go home." He strode up to the silver-haired soldier, wielding the knife with a saddened look on his face. He lifted the blade into the air, preparing to strike. "I'm sorry you went through all this shit, but life isn't always fair," he said calmly before he brought the blade down.
Silba's world slowed. Tears formed in her eyes as her vision narrowed in on the sharpened metal hurling towards her. She was afraid, but not for her life. She was terrified because she felt nothing. She shut her eyes and lowered her head to ease her mind before death. She could feel the air being displaced by the blade brush against the back of her neck…
"Stop!!" Hinata pierced the eerie calm with a rushed voice.
Everything went still. Naruto held the blade mere inches from the lycanthrope's bowed head, staring wide-eyed at the Hyuuga woman. "What?! What is it?!" He inquired warily.
"Do you have to kill her?"
He looked at her with confusion. "She's not gonna stop if I don't. It's the only way…"
"Yeah but…" The blue-haired woman looked sympathetically at the kneeling chained woman. "She's pregnant…"
Uzi's blue and red eyes blinked wide and Silba's head shot up.
"She's what?!" He shouted in surprise.
"I'm what?!" Silba also yelled in bewilderment.
Erm... not much to say here really... I wanted this chapter to be longer, but I was gettin' tired after several hours (yielding unsatisfactory progress, I might add), so I called it here.
This 'arc' (if you could call my short-ass chapters arcs) is almooooost complete. Just one more chapter will wrap up Silba's story, and it'll be on to...
THE FINAL ARC!!! Dun Dun Duuuuuuuun!
Yep, I got one more arc and at least one more awesome surprise in tow for this storyline. In fact, this surprise is so freakishly awesome that I almost shed a tear when I came up with it... just so you know...
Don't worry, though, the last arc will be muuuch longer. At least five times longer (no joke). I'll let ya'll chew on that for a bit.
Well, catch ya'll later!
