37 Tying Up Loose Ends
Naruto and his teammates were currently in a back to back triangle formation as they scanned the forest trying to find their opponent while Naruto's five clones were running a search grid. All of a sudden Naruto caught a whistling sound with his heightened hearing.
Not taking any chances he called out "Break!" before jumping up and back from the formation while his two teammates rolled to the sides getting clear a split second before a golden arrow that looked like it could have been shot from a ballista's younger brother came at them at high speed before it embedded itself into the ground leaving a smoking crater.
Matto whistled from his crouched position and said "Now that's what I call death from above!"
Naruto saw Heza frowning while looking along the arrow's flight path as best she could before cautiously taking a step towards the five foot arrow. Getting close to it while keeping her senses peeled for a follow up attack, Heza studied the arrow and was able to see a chakra string before it disconnected.
"So that's how he did it." Heza mumbled to herself. Naruto and Matto heard her anyway.
"Did what Heza?" Matto asked while also looking through the forest in the direction the shot came from.
"He used a chakra thread to direct the path of the arrow so it wouldn't hit any branches on its way here which would have slowed it down. That's why it had so much piercing power."
Matto got an "oh" look on his face while he kept trying to spot their attacker.
As she said this Naruto directed his clones to start searching in a corridor search grid along a path starting one hundred feet from the arrow and heading away from the trio.
Five hundred yards away, Kidomaru was in his second curse seal form watching the three as they were looking towards him. He smirked before spitting out a blob of gold silk which hardened into another arrow that he nocked into the string of a six foot tall longbow that he drew back with his teeth.
Back with the Team 7, Naruto frowned before turning to Heza and said "How far can you shoot and still be at least ninety percent accurate?"
Heza cocked her head and said "I've got a jutsu that lets me shoot up to eight hundred yards before losing penetration, but I'm only good at six hundred so far and that's with a clear shot. I could still hit at that range here but I won't know where to shoot."
Naruto nodded before all three heard that whistling sound again and took cover behind the trees as another arrow landed right where Heza was a second ago.
As the smoke cleared, Matto shook his head when he saw the second arrow even further in the ground than the first and said "That guy doesn't play around does he?"
Naruto frowned and then grinned when his clones triangulated their opponent's position and told him where he was. Turning to Heza who was behind a tree to his left, he gestured for her to start her jutsu. Heza nodded and ran through a quick series of hand signs before softly calling out "Earth Style: Longbow Jutsu."
A small bump appeared on the ground in front of her before rising up from the ground revealing a five foot long bow made out of rock with a bow string made out of chakra. As Heza grabbed the bow, chakra converged on her back before turning into a quiver of diamond tipped arrows.
Heza drew and nocked an arrow before turning to Naruto and nodded.
Naruto nodded as well and sent a quick inquiry to his clones confirming the enemy's position. Getting final confirmation, Naruto said "Six O'clock. Two degrees towards Five. Forty six degrees high." (If anyone can come up with a better sighting I can change it but I can't think of how high Kidomaru would have to be to make his shots since they never said how tall the trees are.)
Heza nodded before taking a deep breath and spun around the tree. Taking a split second to correct her aim while she drew back the bow string, Heza let loose her arrow before ducking back to cover.
Kidomaru was just about to aim at Heza when he saw her let loose an arrow that came right at him at speeds that were just plain ridiculous for the normal arrow it looked like. By the time he could even think of moving, the arrow had already pierced a path of small holes through the branches in its way and pierced his head where his third eye that gave him increased accuracy was before shooting out of the other side of his head and continued on it's flight path.
Kidomaru dropped to the forest floor with a look of shock on his face as his curse seal withdrew for the final time. Fifteen seconds after he hit the ground, one of Naruto's clones cautiously approached the body and when he saw the hole nodded to himself before contacting the original.
"Kill confirmed."
Back with the trio, Naruto let out a relieved sigh before turning to Heza and said "You got him."
Heza nodded and dropped her jutsu causing the bow to fall apart into small rocks and her quiver of arrows to burst back into chakra which she drew back into herself. As soon as she was done, the trio headed to where Naruto's clones were gathering and examined the fallen nin.
Matto and Naruto whistled at the neat hole in Kidomaru's head while Heza looked quite pleased with herself. Naruto stepped over to the spider nin and took out the scroll that he had sealed Jirobo in. As the body disappeared into the scroll in a poof of smoke, Naruto stood up and turned to his teammates.
"Lets go."
Matto and Heza nodded as the group took off into the forest.
Scene Change: Hidden Leaf Village Main Gate
Naruto's clone was outside the village's main gate pacing as he waited for the backup the Hokage was sending.
'Although if things keep up as they do they won't be needed. With any luck they'll be stopped by those traps we set up at the halfway point. Maybe even sooner if we're really lucky.'
The clone was brought out of its musings by a loud voice.
"Hello there my youthful comrade! We have been assigned to provide youthful backup to you and your youthful teammates."
Twitching his eyebrow at how many times that cursed word was used just now, the clone turned around to see Team Gai standing behind him. He gave them a quick once over before jerking his head and turned towards the forest taking off.
Team Gai was slightly put off at the clone's actions but took off after him anyway. As they drew up alongside him, the clone began explaining to them.
"Team 7 is currently tracking a team of Sound nin that crossed the border. They've already taken out two of the Sound nin and are currently catching up to the other two. With any luck they'll be able to stop them from reaching the village without needing any help. Still, better safe than sorry since the group had been leaving one member to fight Team 7 every time they made contact. Right now the two are almost at the halfway point where some clones have set up traps. Our job is to provide what ever assistance they need. Lady Tsunade wants us to find out what they are after and to capture one of them alive if at all possible. Any questions?"
The four shook their heads before the clone nodded and increased his speed with the others following suit.
Scene Change: Halfway Point Between Border And Leaf Village
Sakon and Tayuya were just about halfway between the Land of Fire border and the Leaf Village. Both were getting nervous since neither of their teammates had caught up with them. They didn't have any longer to worry about it though as they passed a sensor seal that lit up sending a signal ahead of the two to a couple of boxy kunai launchers that were set up to fire a cross stream in front of them.
The two sound nin only heard a couple of clicks as warning before the batteries opened up shooting out continues streams of kunai in groups of ten at a rate of one kunai per second that were being supplied via storage seals that were positioned right below the ammo cartridges.
Their eyes widened as Tayuya shouted "Shit!" before the two dodged to either side to get away from the launchers' line of fire. However, as they moved out of the way, more sensor seals activated and the launchers swiveled to follow them. They kept dodging for about a minute before Sakon's already thin patience went up in smoke and he launched kunai of his own into the two launchers jamming them.
As Tayuya and Sakon let out sighs of relief, A clone that was nearby snickered to itself before raising it's right hand in a hand sign. More seals lit up all around the two completely surrounding them.
"Now what?" Tayuya barely managed to get out before the tags exploded sending out tons of kunai, shuriken, and senbon needles at the duo. As the storm of metal ended, it revealed two logs shredded beyond recognition.
The clone frowned before it suddenly disappeared in a poof of smoke due to the kunai in it's skull alerting the rest of the clones in the area that the duo was looking for them.
Tayuya scowled as she watched the smoke dissipate and Sakon pocketed the kunai he had used.
"That's how the mother fucker got out of Jirobo's jutsu. He had shadow clones out that took him out for the original."
Sakon hmmed before saying "Seems that way. He must have sent a few clones to set up those traps as soon as he received word of us. Come on, we don't have time for this. We have to get to the village as soon as possible. Make sure you don't trip any more traps and keep your eyes open for anymore clones. There's sure to be more around here somewhere."
Tayuya looked at him with a "no duh" look before the two cautiously made their way through the literal mine field around them.
Two hundred yards away at the end of the trap field, the clone that had took charge of this group of clones frowned before smirking and sending commands to his brethren. The clone then leaned against the tree he was in ready to enjoy the show.
Scene Change: With Team 7
Naruto rose his head before saying over his shoulder "They've reached the trap field. Looks like they slowed down so that they could avoid tripping the rest of the traps. Too bad the group leader there has other ideas. He's got some of the clones packing up the launcher traps that they've already passed so we can catch up faster while the rest are getting ready to ambush them."
The group nodded and kept going hoping to catch up quickly for the third and hopefully final fight.
Scene Change: Trap Field
Tayuya and Sakon were currently on the forest floor doing their best to avoid stepping on trip wires and explosion tags as they navigated the trap field. Tayuya was silently cursing up a storm under her breath at how many traps they had spotted so far, and that was only what they were able to spot so far. No telling how many traps were actually out there. And to make matters worse, they hadn't spotted a single clone beside the one Sakon had killed, and the need to know if there were anymore out there was driving the two nuts.
A clone watched from its hidden perch as Tayuya walked behind Sakon single file with about five feet between them. Grinning as Tayuya passed a trip wire that was tied to a group of kunai launchers that was both trip and chakra activated, the clone sent a focused chakra pulse towards the launchers.
Back with the duo, they suddenly heard a clicking sound causing their eyes to widen before kunai launched at them from the bushes around them causing the two to split up to avoid the kunai causing them to trip more and more traps that began launching even more kunai as well as activating exploding tags that did their best to blast the two sound nin sky high. The exploding tags activated even more tags that began detonating in ripple patterns from the initial blasts looking like a group of pebbles hitting a small pond with ripples heading out in multiple circles.
As the last explosions died down, ten clones who had been waiting nearby rushed to where the duo was before splitting up into two groups of five to find their prey. Outside of the trap field, the leader along with the rest of the clones formed a ring facing inward ready to intercept anyone trying to get out.
With Naruto
Naruto's group was two minutes from the trap field when they heard what sounded like thunder from up ahead. As the sound continued, Naruto was 'seeing' the trap field in real time as he kept half a mind on his surroundings and the other half looking through the leader's eyes. He saw the two search teams head off to find their targets before mentally nodding to himself.
He then checked on the clone with Team Gai noticing that at the speed they were traveling they would be at the trap field in a little under half an hour. Naruto mentally thanked Tsunade for sending a team that was used to high speed travel thanks to Gai and Lee's enthusiastic tendencies to race everywhere they went. Although with any luck things will be just about finished when they joined up with them.
With Sakon
Sakon was panting with rips all over his clothes and cuts along his arms and legs from where he wasn't fast enough to completely dodge the sharp pointy objects that had did their best to impale him. It didn't help that his ears were still ringing from all those explosions.
Sakon did his best to keep his senses peeled for any more traps where he was or for anyone about to ambush him. But with his ears ringing, he failed to hear the near perfect silent approach of the S&D team that was sent to find him.
Sakon had just finished catching his breath and was getting ready to try and get out of the hell hole he and Tayuya had found themselves in when he heard what seemed to be one voice coming from all around him.
"Wind Style: Raging Twister Jutsu!"
Right after he heard those words, five twisters appeared in a pentagram formation with five feet between each twister and the one on either side with Sakon in the middle. As soon as the twisters formed they closed in on Sakon who was trapped on all sides before slamming into him and forming into a single twister that was five times as large as the original lifting Sakon into the air and spinning him like a top. Sakon screamed in pain as the now full fledged tornado began adding even more cuts to his body. In the trees surrounding the tornado, the S&D team was holding their hands in the bird sign as they watched their combined jutsu do its work.
With Tayuya
Tayuya groaned from where she had landed on her back after the last explosion had sent her flying as she sat up and tried to get the ringing out of her ears by shaking her head. As the ringing finally left her ears, she heard a very faint rustling in the tree to her right. Tayuya spun around reaching into her weapon pouch before pulling out something that surprised the S&D team that was sent out to find her.
As Tayuya brought her flute to her lips, the leader narrowed his eyes as he realized what type of fighter his opponent seemed to be. Sending a mental warning of possible Genjustu coming into play, the clone prepared itself for anything.
Tayuya took a deep breath in before beginning to play. As she did, the five clones saw the world around them shift, spin, begin dripping, and just flat out fall apart. Each clone immediately made ram signs. But instead of sending out a chakra pulse like people normally would and possibly alerting their opponent that they could break out, the clones focused inward and began manipulating their chakra into raging storms. As soon as they did this, the world around them shattered revealing the real world.
Tayuya, unaware of her Genjutsu being broken, kept playing while preparing to add more layers to further entrap the clones who were keeping their chakra from settling down to prevent themselves from falling into any more Genjutsu. The leader sent a quick message to his group to hold position and let Tayuya run herself to the ground for easy capture. It was now a game of waiting to see who would be able to hold out the longest.
Two Minutes Later With Naruto
Team 7 along with the five clones that had been with them from the start came up to a stop at a part of the forest that looked like the next great shinobi war had broken out. Matto and Heza stared through the blackened trees that still had smoke blowing into the air from all of the fires that were slowly dieing down. Naruto meanwhile was getting a complete update via mental link with the clone in charge of the trap field.
After confirming where both of their targets were and what they were doing, Naruto turned to his teammates and said "We'll split up from here. Matto, I want you to take the clones from our group to where the two headed guy is. They'll lead you to him. He's currently trapped in a combined wind jutsu that a five man S&D team raised. See if you can get any info from him but make sure he doesn't try anything funny."
Matto nodded and the five clones took off with him following while Naruto turned to Heza and said "The girl is currently trying to use Genjutsu against the team sent after her. Doesn't seem like she can do much else. With any luck we can capture her and bring her back to the village for interrogation."
Heza nodded and the two took of to where the second team was.
With Matto
Matto and the five clones leading him came upon the unusual site of a tornado keeping the two headed man floating off the ground with five other clones keeping their hands in the bird sign maintaining the chakra flow for the jutsu. Sakon was a mess of cuts from where the wind jutsu had cut every inch of his body before switching from destruction to simple imprisonment. The nin looked to be unconscious although Matto couldn't be sure. Gesturing to the five that joined him to take positions next to the S&D squad to provide backup if needed, Matto stepped closer to the tornado stopping at five feet away and looked with narrowed eyes at the nin that was slowly turning inside of the funnel. After studying the nin for about half a minute, Matto gave a cutoff gesture with his hand. The clones holding the jutsu immediately dropped their hands causing the wind to dissipate and the Sound nin to drop unceremoniously to the ground.
Sakon groaned before looking up and his eyes widened and then narrowed as he spotted Matto. Matto squatted down so that he was closer to Sakon's level but still able to bolt if the nin tried anything.
Matto gave a small smile that sent shivers down Sakon's spine and lightning begin to spark in his right hand before saying "Why don't we have a little chat?"
(For those wondering, no Matto is not like Ibiki or Anko in personality. He's just drawing on what Kakashi taught them about interrogation since he had been a former Anbu captain.)
With Naruto and Heza
As Naruto and Heza drew close to their own target, They heard the sound of a flute being played and thier world begin spinning. The two formed the ram hand sign before softly saying "release" and continued without breaking stride through the trees. As they came up to the clones though, they heard something that they really weren't expecting: the sound of a tree falling. Looking at each other in question, the two increased their speed until they came upon a sight that was unusual to say the least.
The clones had scattered from where they had been hiding and were currently dodging three beings that could be best described as large ogres that were tearing the forest apart trying to hit them while Tayuya was standing still with her eyes roaming the forest around her with her flute never leaving her lips.
Catching sight of the original and Heza, Tayuya's eyes narrowed before all three ogres turned as one and launched themselves at the two. Naruto and Heza split up as they jumped to the sides with both running through hand signs. As soon as they touched down they called out their jutsu before launching them at the threat.
"Earth Style: Earth Spear Jutsu!"
"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!"
A spear of rock shot out of the ground which Heza grabbed before hurling into the head of the closest ogre while Naruto spat out a large fireball that incinerated the other two.
The two thought it was over for the ogres and so were surprised when the ogres came out of the flames and did their best to turn Naruto into paste as he dodged while the other simply reached up and yanked the spear out of its head before swinging it like a club at Heza who quickly jumped away to avoid being hit.
"OK, this is new!" Heza called as she ducked under another of the Ogre's swing before jumping up into a branch of a nearby tree. She had to jump again as soon as she landed when the ogre swung the spear against the tree causing it to fall.
Tayuya smirked before it was wiped off of her face by Naruto's next actions.
Deciding that enough was enough, Naruto sheathed himself in his wind shield before launching himself right into one of the ogre's chest and shot straight out of the other side. The ogre disappeared in a poof of smoke as Naruto landed in front of the other one and swung his right leg bisecting the ugly brute causing it to disappear as well. Turning to Heza's ogre, Naruto ran through hand signs before calling his jutsu.
"Earth Style: Iron Maiden Jutsu!"
As soon as the words left the blonde's mouth, two slabs of rock shot up on either side of the ogre. Spikes shot out of the two slabs impaling the ogre before they slammed shut together instantly crushing the ogre. The jutsu took no more than three seconds from start to finish and by the time the two Leaf nin had turned their attention back to Tayuya she was visibly shaken at how her summons were destroyed so quickly.
Tayuya's eyes narrowed before she said "Let's see you pieces of shit deal with this!"
Naruto and Heza braced themselves for anything but before they could do anything more than slide into quick stances, marks spread out from her neck before her body transformed. Her skin darkened into a muddy brown while her eyes turned black with yellow pupils. Finally, three horns sprouted from her head before curling forward to form a type of crown around her head.
Naruto and Heza stared at Tayuya who growled before recklessly launching herself at Heza. Heza ducked under Tayuya's sloppy punch before hitting a pressure point on her neck causing the redhead to drop like a sack of potatoes. As the marks receded, Naruto shook his head as he walked over.
"Not very good at Taijutsu was she?"
Heza shook her head as well as the clones came down from where they had hung back to let the original and his teammate handle the situation. As they came over, Naruto took out a blank scroll and quickly began writing on it. As soon as he was done, Naruto sent the unconscious sound nin into the newly made stasis seal before standing up.
Turning to where he knew Matto still was, he said "Come on, let's see what Matto found out."
Heza nodded and followed the blond as the clones fell in behind the two.
With Matto
Matto was currently trying to get their prisoner to loosen his tongue without much luck. Sakon apparently had high pain tolerance levels and wasn't saying anything besides the taunt or two about how Matto was an amateur.
Ten minutes later Naruto and Heza walked up to him as the clones joined their brethren. As Sakon saw them his eyes widened slightly before narrowing.
"I don't know what happened to Tayuya and I don't care. I highly doubt you got anything from her and you sure as hell ain't getting anything from me!"
Naruto just rose an eyebrow before saying "Really? Well even if we don't get anything, I'm sure the guys at the T&I well get plenty from you. Ibiki and Anko have ways of getting people to talk. They've turned what they do into an art form."
As he said the last part, Naruto got an evil smile that had Sakon afraid of seeing this so called 'art.' Before he could say anything though, Naruto gestured to a clone who took out a senbon needle and shot it right at the sound nins neck.
As Sakon fell to the ground unconscious Naruto shook his head before thinking to himself 'Gotta thank Haku for teaching me how to do that properly.'
Naruto stepped over to the body and made another stasis seal and sealed the nin away. Once he was done, he got up and started heading towards Team Gai with his teammates falling in with the clones dispelling themselves followed by all of the other clones in the area.
With Team Gai
The shadow clone slowed down its pace to a more leisurely one as it received the memories from the rest of the clones. Noticing the drop in speed, Team Gai followed suit.
"What is it my most youthful comrade?" Gai asked from his position besides the clone.
"Team 7 just finished dealing with the last enemy ninja and are currently heading towards us. They'll get here soon enough so there's no reason to keep running like we were."
The team nodded at the clone's words but were all disappointed on the inside that they hadn't had a chance at some of the action.
Hokage Tower
The clone gave a soft sigh from the seat it was in before raising its head to look at Tsunade who had looked up from her paperwork when she heard the sigh.
"Interception of all intruding nin successful. Team 7 was able to capture the last two intruders and are currently transporting them in a stasis storage scroll. They will hook up with Team Gai in three minutes and are heading on in. The other team you sent to the border as their replacement should be there by the end of the day."
Tsunade nodded before asking what was really bugging her.
"Did they find out what they were after?"
The clone slowly shook his head.
"Unfortunately not ma'am. But I'm sure Ibiki will."
The older blond nodded at this before lowering her head again and went back to her paperwork.
Author's Notes: Hey guys, hope you liked this one. I did my best to make this realistic enough. And before you say anything about Tayuya flipping out before Heza dropped her like a rock, look at it from this point of view. Her Genjutsu wasn't working and Naruto shredded her ogres. Add to the fact that she had almost constantly been on the run for the day I think she would have gotten really pissed and just throw all caution out the window and try to use the curse seal to power her way through them. Also, no asking what about Ukon, I promise there is a reason he didn't do anything this chapter.