Standard Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or Naruto. Please forgive any spelling or grammar errors, I try to catch them all but I know I'm not always successful.
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xXx-Chapter 35-xXx
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Yugito came to a halt, her mind racing and her heart trying to hammer its way out of her chest. She looks around helplessly as she desperately tries to pick up a trail, something anything that she could follow. She had lost the scent some time ago, the faint trace of her sister's blood on the air was long gone and even her enhanced senses could pick up nothing.
"Yoko…" Yugito half cries, half whispers as she runs a hand through her hair. She needed to stay calm, she needed to focus. Losing her mind and panicking would do her no good. She had to keep calm, but it was hard. Harder than anything she had ever had to do.
Yoko had always been by her side, always stood by her, had loved her unconditionally despite what she was. Even her own parents couldn't have said the same thing if they were still alive. When she thought she truly was a monster, that nothing and no one could ever love her, when she was about to give in, it was her baby sister Yoko who had proved her wrong and saved her. It was Yoko who had taught her to open up her heart, had shown her how to accept friendship when offered.
Yoko was the reason she had people like Bee and Samui in her life. Yoko always believed in her, always loved her. At her darkest moment, when she thought that she had nothing to live for it was Yoko who had saved her.
Yugito sat in the corner of her room and hugged her knees to her chest, once more her training in learning to control the beast inside of her had gone to hell. It wasn't her fault, she didn't ask for this, it was her parents who had agreed to the stupid Raikage's request and agreed to let her be turned into this… this monster.
And now they couldn't even look at her, they were afraid of her. It wasn't her fault and it wasn't fair. She hated them, she hated the looks she received, the glares. She hated her teachers and this village. And most of all she hated this demon that had been put inside of her. Except… she didn't, not really, she wanted to, it would make this so much easier, but she didn't hate them.
She was now a jinchūriki, a living vessel for a demon, a weapon. She wasn't a human any more, she wasn't a girl, or even a kunoichi. She was a weapon, a weapon that the village could unleash her upon at any time and against anyone that they deemed fit. Or she would be if she could learn to control what was inside of her.
But they didn't understand, no one did, the demon inside of her… whenever she felt its chakra… it made her feel sick and angry. They just didn't get it, she couldn't control what they put in her, no one could. Why, why her, why did she have to bear this? What had she ever done to deserve this?
'Nothing, you did nothing child.' A sinister voice whispers in the back of her mind.
"No…" She whines, "Stop it… go away." She begs. From the moment the demon had been placed inside of her she had felt wrong. Like there was a poison inside of her. But it wasn't until recently, when she had been forced to start learning how to draw on its power that the beast began to speak to her, whispering thoughts of death and destruction in her ears. Sending her visions of everyone she loved dying.
'You owe these people nothing. Look at how they view you, even your own parents hate you.'
"Stop it, please…"
'You never asked for this, and yet they forced it upon you. Now everyone hates you, everyone fears you.'
"Go away… I'm not listening…"
'They've ruined your life, they selfishly sacrificed you for their own gain.'
Yugito starts to cry, "No… go away…"
'Hate them.'
Yugito clenches her eyes shut and begins to rock back and forth, trying to ignore the demons voice and particularly the way it was making her feel.
'Despise them.'
"This is my home… my family…" Yugito whimpers.
'You gave up everything for them, no, they took everything from you, and you have continued to do everything they have asked of you. And for what? The looks of fear, the cruelty, the abuse. Admit it, you hate them.'
"I… I…" Yugito's eyes move towards the closed door, an ugly and fierce look on her young face. "I do." She whispers, "I hate them."
Suddenly Yugito finds herself standing in front of a large black gate. On the gate is a single paper seal with the kanji for lock written in black ink. Behind the gate seemed an infinite void of darkness. All around her a blue fire raged furiously around her, she feel the scorching heat beating against her and yet it didn't burn.
Ancient eyes slowly and ominously open inside the dark void behind the cage. 'Good,' a sinister voice hisses, 'very good. Break the seal, gain vengeance for all of the wrongs done unto you. Unleash our fury upon all who have hurt you and destroy all that they hold dear.'
Yugito doesn't say anything to answer back. She couldn't, it was like she wasn't in control of her own body, like she was watching herself from a distance. Her mind was blank in the kind of way that only happens when you haven't slept in days. She takes a hesitant step forward, and then another, and slowly she raises her hand towards the paper seal.
'Yes, soon, soon they will pay for what they have done to you. You who would have protected them, loved them, you whom they have betrayed. Take your vengeance, now!'
"They betrayed me…" Yugito parrots back, her voice dead. "I loved them and they hate me…" Her hand takes the top right corner of the seal and she begins to peel it.
'Yessss!' The voice hisses in delight, knowing the level of destruction that it would soon unleash upon those who dared to imprison it. 'Do it, now!'
"Now…" Yugito repeats, hollowly.
"Yugito? Are you sleeping?" A little voice asks, shaking her lightly.
Yugito blinks and suddenly the cage, the blue fire, and the endless void are gone and she's back in her room. And instead of staring into ancient, demonic eyes, she is looking into the bright blue eyes of her little sister Yoko.
"Yoko? What are you doing in here?"
"You seemed sad… I wanted to see if you were okay."
"Why?" Yugito asks, too confused by this to let any of her bitterness show.
Yoko giggles, "Because you're my big sister silly, and I love you."
Yugito's eyes begin to water, "You love me?" She couldn't have heard that right, no one loved her, not anymore.
"Of course."
"But I'm a monster?"
"No you're not, you're Yugito." Yoko says, tilting her head in confusion.
Yugito begins to feel choked up and while looking into the earnest and sweet eyes of her little sister she couldn't hold it back and she begins to cry. She can feel Yoko wrap her arms around her in a big hug. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Yoko says, slightly panicking because her big sister was crying and she didn't know why.
"Don't be sorry…" Yugito says as she continues to cry, wrapping her arms around her little sister and returning the hug. "I love you too." Someone still loved her, someone still cared, maybe she wasn't the monster she and everyone else thought she was?
Yoko had saved her. And now she was in trouble, possibly hurt. She had to find her, she had to save her, but she had no idea where to go from here. Yugito looks up into the cloudy sky helplessly, silently begging whatever gods still existed, that something would send her a sign, would point her in the direction she would need to go to find her sister.
It's as all hope is failing her that she senses a powerful technique go off, and hears a massive explosion in the distance. She wasn't a sensor-nin, however if enough chakra was used in a technique, and it was potent enough, then anyone could sense chakra. Combine that with her enhanced senses, and she was able to pick up the general direction of what must be ninja fighting.
Only Kumo shinobi looking for the spy and Konoha infiltrators were in the area, which meant some of her people must have run into trouble. Maybe they even ran into the ones who had Yoko. She could feel Matatabi's chakra begin to flow through her, as she began to race towards the source of the explosion. She didn't know if Yoko was there, but it was the best lead she had.
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xXx-Scene Break-xXx
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Yugao easily spun through the air bringing her sword around in a sideways slicing motion, forcing the enemy kunoichi to jump back to avoid being disemboweled. Simultaneously, she used the momentum of her spin to roundhouse kick the enemy shinobi in the face as he tried to attack her from behind, sending him flying back, and when Yugao comes to a stop, she brings her sword up in front of her in a defensive position.
They were good, she had to give them that. Excellent teamwork and technique. They attacked her in unison, using their superior numbers to their advantage. Trying to flank her and catch her off guard, against a less experienced opponent they would have won already. But against someone like her… they were nothing but a persistent annoyance. She would kill them eventually, they were getting tired and frustrated, and their attacks were less and less precise with each run. And every time they attacked her she was able to read them more easily. But they had taken up enough of her time and she was never one to toy with her opponents. It was time to end this.
"Dammit, where's Tai?" The shinobi curses.
"You know that idiot, he's probably toying with her instead of getting the job done-" The kunoichi growls, not taking her eyes off of Yugao, before being interrupted by a large explosion in the distance. The kunoichi pinches her brow in a way that she feels she has done a million times over the years she has known her teammate. "That idiot, he'll be here soon. Between the three of us we can take her, we just have to hold her off until he arrives."
"That knucklehead never takes anything seriously." The shinobi chuckles.
Yugao felt bad for them, they didn't realize the truth. Yes, their teammate's battle was in fact over, but he was the one who had just lost, not Rin. Yugao could sense the immense power behind her student's attack, it was more than she had ever felt Rin use before and if the Sandaime was correct, not even close to what she was capable. She could also sense the weakening and fluttering of the Kumo shinobi's chakra, and finally the way it blinked out of existence as he died.
Rin would come here first, meet up with her, then they would join Hizashi and Hana in protecting Nami. It would be preferable, however, if she defeated her opponents before Rin arrived. After all, how would look if her student won her battle by herself, and yet she, the sensei, didn't? She had been trying to conserve her energy and her chakra, but that time had passed. She knew her enemies now, knew how they moved, fought, and even thought. Two techniques would end this, one each. It would require more of her chakra than she wanted to spend but that was the way it went sometimes.
Yugao shifts her stance, and takes note of the way her opponents both react, trying to prepare themselves and guard against her next attack. It was futile, she could see three openings on her first target that she could exploit in order to take him out quickly with her next attack, and two on the other. They were tired and no longer able to keep up with her, they were counting on backup arriving that was already dead.
Yugao was a ken-jutsu specialist, which meant the majority of her sword techniques required that both of her hands be holding… well, a sword. This made using hand seals, a necessary component of the majority of jutsu, an issue. So like her student, Yugao had become a bit of a perfectionist when it came to her techniques. Whenever she learned a technique she slowly mastered it to the point where she no longer needed hand seals.
Doing so took patience and dedication, and a willingness to endure hours of repetition and practice. Now all she needed to do with the techniques in her arsenal was say the name to help her mind focus her jutsu into being. "Sacred Leaf Art: Phase One, Dance of the New Moon."
Yugao can feel her the chakra in her body form and concentrate as she directs it throughout her body, and as she utters the name of her technique she feels the familiar sensation of a jutsu activating. A clone of herself shoots forward from her body, it is pitch black, almost as if it is absorbing all light that hits hit. Yugao springs forward, simultaneously, the technique links her body to that of the clone. It picks up on the subtle shifts in her chakra and copies her moves perfectly, a fraction of a second before she can even make them.
It's disorienting for her opponent, who is so focused on what Yugao had named a, Void Clone, that they can't see her hiding within its shadow. Its movement, both telegraphing and hiding the moves she was going to make. He raises his kunai to block the doppelganger's blade, connecting with the void of pure Yin chakra that created it. The Void Clone's blade passes right through his own and barely misses him, while she brings her own blade around, spinning in front of him and using the momentum to slice his belly open, spilling his guts out onto the earth.
He looks at her in shock, before his gaze moves down to watch his own intestines and stomach spill out onto the ground. He falls onto his knees and as he does so, Yugao puts an end to his suffering, quickly removing his head with one quick sweep of his sword. The Void Clone mimics her actions in perfect synchronization before it shimmers and disperses out of existence.
The world is silent for a moment, not even the wind blows before the silence is shattered by a horrified and broken scream. "NOOOOOOOO!" The Kumo kunoichi flings three shuriken at Yugao with deadly accuracy. Yugao deflects all three easily with her blade before ducking under and sidestepping the Kumo kunoichi's attack. She had hoped to use the shuriken as a distraction to create an opening.
Yugao continues to avoid her opponent's assault, dodging each attack with ease. Her attacks were wild and un-focused. They were more akin to that of a berserker than a shinobi. The two of them must have been more than just teammates to get this kind of reaction for the Kumo kunoichi. It's as she over extends herself that Yugao reacts with her own counter attack, quickly bringing her knee up into the kunoichi's stomach, knocking the wind out of her and lifting her slightly off of her feet.
The Kumo kunoichi falls to her knees hugging her sides as she gasps for air. Yugao feels a twinge of remorse as she looks down at the kunoichi keeled over at her feet. She had fought well and if Yugao and her team had been able to find Nami sooner then maybe she wouldn't have had to fight her or her teammate. But Yugao also knew that it could have just as easily been her and her team on the losing side of this fight. This was the world they lived in and chose, and when you fought someone, it was always to the death.
Yugao brings her blade down, hoping to sever her brain stem and end it quickly, but the Kumo kunoichi has more fight left in her than Yugao had initially thought, and the girl manages to roll out of the way. As she does so she flings three more kunai at Yugao, who manages to side step the first, and block the second one with her sword. However, the third one hits her, if only just, leaving a small scratch along her left cheek.
Yugao allows her enemy to roll away to a safer distance while runs her thumb across the cut, using her limited knowledge of medical jutsu to heal the cut as she does so. She carefully observes the enemy kunoichi, it had been a mistake on her part to assume that it was over, arrogance. It wasn't over until one of them was dead. She needed to be steady and careful, pick her moment, and then strike. Even if she had the advantage, it didn't matter, she had let her guard down and it could have cost her, her life.
The Kumo kunoichi takes a shaky breath as she pushes herself to her feet. "I'm going to kill you," she spits out angrily. Her hands fly into motion, weaving an intricate pattern of hand seals. "Lightning Style: Lightning Dragon Jutsu!" She screams out, as electricity begins to surge from her body and coalesce. It violently arcs and whips around her body and grows in size and power, and as it does so the lightning begins to take on the form of a giant dragon.
Lightning jutsu were the fastest of the five standard elemental jutsu. It was the element of piercing after all, and the high speed nature of lightning jutsu lent itself to that. However, like each of the elements, Lighting Jutsu had their own set of weaknesses. Like the fact that while the techniques themselves were fast, they were slow to activate. It was a weakness Yugao was more than happy to exploit.
"Sacred Leaf Art: Phase Two, Dance of the Crescent Moon."
This time two Void Clones emerge from her, shooting out from her left side and then a fraction of a second later her right. The two Void Clones circle around and attack the Kumo kunoichi from the left and right sides, while Yugao rushes forward. As she moves towards her target, she can see that Kumo kunoichi is focusing on her, not her clones. She had misread what her technique, Dance of the New Moon, actually did, and had assumed that her Void Clones were merely an illusion, used to cause a distraction.
She was wrong.
The first Void Clone's black blade slices through the Kumo kunoichi on her left side, and as it does so, the concentration she held over her lightning dragon disperses. The lightning arc's around them uncontrollably as the dragon begins to lose its form. Immediately after, the other Void Clone slices through her on the right side. The two pitch black void blades pass through her, violently tearing her chakra out of her body. Her body seizes up, paralyzing her by the pain and the sensation of her chakra being ripped from her body. And as the two Void Clones cross paths, Yugao reaches her target and stabs the Kumo kunoichi through the heart.
All of this happens in a matter of seconds, the Void Clones then disperse into nothingness and the lightning dragon loses all shape and the electricity discharges away. All that is left is Yugao standing in front of the Kumo kunoichi, her blade shoved through her enemy's chest. Her eyes are wide and glassed over and her mouth hangs open. Yugao then rips her blade out and swings in back flicking the blood off of it, and the Kumo kunoichi falls to the earth, dead.
Yugao bows her head for a moment of silence to honor the two shinobi that had fallen to her blade. Her Dance of the Moon Techniques were not jutsu that she used lightly and the fact that she had used both phases one and two in the same battle spoke volumes of their skill. The Dance of the Moon jutsu were her own original techniques. There were five phases in total, each one corresponding with a phase of the moon. New Moon, Crescent Moon, Half Moon, Gibbous Moon, and finally the Full Moon.
Each phase increased the number of what she called Void Clones. They looked like living shadows of herself and were made up from pure Yin energy, or in other words the physical aspect of the energy that made up chakra. Yang making up the spiritual aspect. Because her Void Clones had no Yang chakra in them, they couldn't think or act for themselves the same way that other clones could, like with shadow clones, or earth and water clones.
The clones had to follow the path that she envisioned for them when they came into being, and they could also only perform the action that she willed into them when she created them. So they could attack, but only once and only in one way. But, because they were made of only Yin chakra they did have some force behind them, nowhere near the physical presence of a shadow clone, which made an actual physical copy, but more than the standard clone jutsu. They couldn't physically interact with or hurt someone, but you could still feel them.
And because they were only made of Yin chakra they had an almost magnetic relationship with Yang chakra. That connection is how she made the clone seem to anticipate her own moves in the Dance of the New Moon, and it is also what made them so deadly in the next phase, Dance of the Crescent Moon. The Void Clones could do no physical harm to their target, they didn't have enough substance to them, but when they passed through something with Yang chakra in it, their Yin chakra was so concentrated that it pulled the Yang chakra out of whatever it was they hit and towards itself. Giving the sensation of having your chakra ripped from your body when they hit you.
To be hit by these Void Clones of hers was painful to the point of paralysis and they were disruptive of almost every jutsu that she had ever come across. In fact Yugao had never seen any technique retain its form on the rare occasion that she used these jutsu. They were powerful and she was incredibly proud of them, they were her own original jutsu after all, but they took a lot out of her.
Yugao takes a moment to center herself and catch her breath while she waits for her student to arrive. Luckily she doesn't have to wait long, and few minutes later, Rin comes running into view. Physically, she looks a little ruffled, and Yugao could tell that she had taken a couple of nasty blows, but on the whole she looked physically fine.
"You okay kid?" Yugao asks, her voice sympathetic. Because, while Rin looked physically fine, Yugao could tell that mentally she was drowning.
Rin surprises her by answering honestly, "No, not really." She says with a small humorless laugh, "But that doesn't matter right now. We need to hurry."
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xXx-Scene Break-xXx
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Hana struggled to breathe as she forced herself to her feet. She was stuck and it didn't seem to matter what she did, her enemy had a counter for her. If she charged in, the one on the left, Itsu would perform some kind of Lightning Jutsu that would violently repel her and if she tried to keep her distance then Moi, the one on the right, assaulted her with powerful Wind Jutsu. On their own she might have been able to win, but together, at her current level, there wasn't much she could do. As much as she hated to admit it, she was in a no win situation.
She was an Inuzuka, she was supposed to be a fighter, but she was still only a chūnin and her focus had been less on combat and more on medical jutsu and support, particularly as a veterinarian. She was the heir to her clan, but unlike her Mother, and her Grandfather before that, she didn't want to lead as a fighter, but as a healer. There was nothing in this world more loyal than a dog, and the Inuzuka dogs were paragons of that virtue. She hated seeing them get hurt, and even worse die. Ever since she was little it had always upset her, and so she had become a medical ninja and then turned her focus into becoming veterinarian.
Unfortunately, the time and training it took to specialize in that field had cut into her combat training. She still worked out, she still trained in order to maintain her physical prowess, but that was a part of the problem. She knew for a fact that her mother could have wiped the floor with these two and if she had trained herself for combat with as much effort as she had her medical jutsu then she might have been able to as well. But she hadn't, and it was her pack that had paid the price for her neglect. Ni was hurt, Ichi was possibly dead, and San looked like she did, that one more direct hit would finish him off.
Hizashi had his hands full, he couldn't help her without abandoning Nami, and Yugao and Rin were nowhere to be seen. She had failed, she couldn't win this, there was only one thing left for her to do and that was make sure that her death had meaning. If she could take one of them out, if she could even just injure one, even at the cost of her own life, then maybe, just maybe that could make all the difference and give her team and Nami the chance they needed to survive.
"I'm sorry boys…" She whispers softly, so that only her pack could hear her. "I'm sorry I wasn't stronger. You were the best, most loyal partners anyone could ever have asked for… I didn't deserve you… I don't deserve you..."
San can tell that something is wrong with his Hana. He tries to move towards her, he had to protect her, it was his job to protect her. She was his pack. But his body hurt, and he could barely move, the same with his brothers. Their mistress was in danger and none of them could protect her. He can hear Ichi's labored breathing as he tries to stay awake, he can hear the low whine of Ni as he tries and fails to push himself to his feet. And then there was him, he needed to move, it hurt him, every single step, every breath hurt him, but he had to move, he had to protect his Hana.
Hana raises a hand and San stops short at the command, confused. "It's okay boy, you did great."
"I'd always heard stories about how fearsome Konoha's Inuzuka clan were, but I gotta say you don't exactly live up to the hype." Itsu says.
"I agree, let's end this now and go help Raiko with the Hyūga. Then we can grab that damn spy and finally go home." Moi says with a slight huff. It had been entertaining to see their combo techniques work so well, but they had no desire to draw this out any more than they already had. The Konoha girl had fought hard and she was deserving of a quick and honorable death. It hadn't been a difficult fight, but for how hard she had tried she deserved that much at least.
"This isn't over yet." Hana snarls, reaching into her pouch.
Itsui and Moi exchange exasperated looks, because it really was. Still they had to admire her persistence, even if it was a bit of a nuisance. They stop short when they see her pop a tiny red pill into her mouth.
The red pill was one of her own unique recipes, it was a supped up version of her clan's standard soldier pill. She developed it on accident, while trying to lessen the strain that the original pills had on the user. She had finally thought she had figured the formula out when she had taken it for the first time. It worked… but in the exact opposite way that she had intended.
The chakra output provided by the pill was exponentially greater than that of a standard pill, but so was the strain on the body. She had almost died and had spent a week in the hospital the last time she had taken one of these red pills. But since she didn't plan on surviving this anyway, Hana guessed that didn't matter too much anyway.
The pill overcharged the user's system with chakra allowing them to supercharge their chakra intensive techniques. And almost immediately after she bites down on the pill Hana could feel chakra explode through her body, surging and coursing through her. One last burst, one last attack, if she could just take one of them out, then it would be worth her life. She had failed her pack, she had failed her team, she owed them this at the very least.
"UUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Hana screams as her body is overwhelmed by chakra. "INUZUKA SECRET ART: FANG PASSING FANG JUTSU!" Hana surges forward, with more force than she ever had before, her body twisting and rotating, turning her into a massive drill that tore through the earth as she rushed towards her enemy, the rotational force behind her technique was like that of a tornado. This was it, this was everything she had to give and more.
Itsu and Moi exchange a quick glance as the super powered attack rushes towards them. Their hands fly into a series of seals as the two long time partners combine their techniques into one.
"Lightning Style!"
"Wind Style!"
Then in unison their voices call out together, "Storm Release: Heavens Rage!" And with that, the Lightning and Wind chakra combine and begin to swirl around them, a tornado forming and creating a protective barrier around them, reaching up to the sky and clouds above. As it continues to spin, the tornado gathers more power and begins to generate a massive amount of static electricity, electrifying the whirlwind.
Hana drills into the rotating barrier, the power of the two forces crashing into each other sends debris flying everywhere. For what felt like an eternity the two forces press against each other, until the strain is too much and one of them breaks. The physical toll of the technique is too much for Hana to maintain any longer and her jutsu fails. Hana is sucked into the electrified vortex, cutting winds slicing all along her body while electricity surges through her.
Itsu and Moi end their technique and Hana drops to the ground with a thud. Her body burned, bruised, broken and cut, almost beyond recognition. Hana has never experienced pain like this before, defying her body's wishes of just letting go, her eyes flutter open, and she futilely tries to get up. She briefly manages to raise her head before collapsing again. Trying, but failing, to do anything more than just clench her fists and make her body twitch.
Itsu and Moi take a moment to catch their breath. "Damn…" Itsu gasps, "I take it back, those Inuzuka are tough bastards."
Moi nods his head in agreement, "Agreed." Moi says, breathlessly. Their combo techniques were some of the most powerful jutsu that existed in their village, but they used up a ton of chakra and were meant as a last resort. Luckily for them it had been enough, because the Inuzuka's attack had been awesome to behold. Unfortunately for them, they had never had to force their technique to go on that long before so that was taking its toll as well. "Let's end this now, before she decides to pull another trick out of her sleeve."
"I don't know about that." Itsu chuckles, "I don't think she's got anything left in her. The fact that she survived being inside the vortex is a miracle itself, let alone that long. But I agree, let's end her quickly, she deserves that much."
Before they can move towards Hana's downed form, San limps in front of them, teeth barred as he moves to protect Hana, placing himself between the Kumo shinobi and his mistress. A low growl reverberates through him as he warns them to stay away from his Hana.
Itsu growls in frustration, "I swear… I am going to skin those mutts and turn them into coats."
Moi rolls his eyes at Itsu, though he was annoyed too. Like his teammate he wanted this to be over and done with as well. "Calm down, it's over and we've won."
"No. You haven't." A feminine voice calls out, echoing around them. Both Itsu and Moi look around to find the source of the voice, but are unable to locate it, until in a whirl of leaves and wind two Konoha kunoichi appear between them and their target.
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xXx-Author's Note-xXx
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So, I hope you guys are enjoying the fights for what they are. It's definitely not my strong suit but hopefully they aren't completely awful. I just know that as far as the fights are concerned I don't ever want this to be just a case of Konoha good, enemy bad. I mean, that has it's time and place obviously, but between two ninja villages, and especially with these current situations, I don't want the enemy to just be nameless faces. Other than a select few characters, this is not a case of black and white, good versus evil. The shinobi world and the conflicts within it all exist in a shade of grey.
Quinn/Rin, Yugao, Hana, and Hizashi, may be the protagonists of this arc, but like in regards to Yugito and her little sister, that doesn't necessarily make them heroes. That's why Naruto is such an anomaly within the shinobi world, because he actually is a hero. If he can save everyone he will, he is the exception to kill or be killed rule that exists in the shinobi world. But until that time where he can change the world, horrible situations like this, where people are killed and watch loved ones die, will continue to exist. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I will have the next one up as soon as I can.