Kaneshi!
Chapter 43
By: HeavenlydemonxXxo
I definitely will not own Naruto.
Legasp. Weird ninjas that keep saying Lucky!
It was pretty gross, the way those sludge-like clones appeared.
"What's going on?" asked Sakura.
"There are a lot of them. And they're all replications." replied Kabuto-san.
"Heh heh. Like a mouse in a trap." said one of the clones. I shuddered. Even their voice sounded weird and unnatural.
"SHUT UP!" shouted Naruto as he slugged one of them.
His fist went through its body, leaving a big gash there. Another head started sprouting out of it. Oueck. These were pretty sick clones.
The second head grew a hand holding a kunai. I saw where this was leading to.
"Naruto!" me and Sasuke both shouted. He threw several shurikens, bursting the clone's arm apart. But it threw another kunai at him. I was expecting Sasuke to dodge it, but he didn't seem to be doing anything. "Sasuke, move!" He still didn't budge. Kabuto-san took him down and got cut instead. He moved away, while gripping his arm. Sasuke was still lying on the ground. He looked shocked.
"Since Kabuto-san got hurt, does that mean that they're shadow replications with real flesh? But shadow replications should disappear if they are hit cleanly. Since they don't disappear, are they really illusions? Which is it?" freaked Naruto.
The clones kept sludging their way towards us. I aimed a kunai at them.
"It's useless! Stop!" shouted Sasuke. Ah, so he did move, finally. "They are just illusions. It's an illusionary technique used by the enemy."
"But! The wound on Kabuto-san is real!" shouted Sakura.
"No, Sasuke-kun is right. The real enemy is probably hidden near us. And they are attacking us from somewhere else while matching the illusion ninja's movements. This makes it seem like the illusion ninja are attacking us." said Kabuto-san.
"Then, we should follow the direction in which that kunai came from!" I yelled.
"I'll find those idiots hiding in the forest, and beat them up!" Naruto threatened.
"Wait! They could've moved in seconds to a different location, so the source of the kunai is hidden, so we can't figure out the enemy's exact location. Do you understand now? That's their tactic. According to my data, those who are weak in hand-to-hand and clsoe combat prefer to attack like this. The real enemy won't come out until we can't move at all. Listen up, everyone. We can only dodge the enemy's attack right now." said Kabuto-san.
"All right. If we're planning on doing that..." remarked Naruto. The clones all threw kunais at us. I kept dodging them. If they were going to do this until I can't move, then it wouldn't be too long. "I'll just do this!" shouted Naruto. He got into his shadow clone form.
"Stop, Naruto-kun. Don't waste your chakra. There's no point in attacking them."
"If we get rid of all the illusions at once, the enemy can't attack during the time they return back to normal. Since they're going to reveal their position." he informed us. Suddenly Naruto clones appeared everywhere. They jumped, attacking the clones. Those clones kept bursting apart and reformed into another clone. It was endless.
"Sasuke-kun.. What do we do now?" asked Sakura.
"That idiot.. We have to fight, too!" said Sasuke.
"Yeah, he can't handle this situation alone." said Kabuto-san, backing him up.
"Let's hope we win." I muttered. We all jumped to attack. I thrust my kunai at everything that came my way. I suddenly came upon myself. "What the--" I shouted. Someone grabbed my shirt and led me away. Everyone else was there, behind the bushes. "What's going on?"
"Shh. Just watch."
For some time, I watched our clones fighting, avoiding any damage. The sun started rising, when they, or 'we', were thrusted onto the ground. Naruto smirked.
"Like a mouse in a trap." said Sasuke.
"It went well, Naruto." congratulated Sakura.
"Genious, really." I added.
"What? That can't be! When did they...!" they gasped. We rose up out of the bushes.
"You idiots finally showed yourselves, damn it." said Naruto. Our fake selves poofed back into fake Narutos. "I used the shadow replication to just set up this trick. So that I could pretend to be everyone from this team." His clones poofed away.
"Once Naruto undid his replications, the three of us hid. So an illusionary technique master was fooled." Sasuke told them. Naruto fell onto his knee, panting. "Naruto! Naruto, you used up too much chakra. I'll do the rest."
Naruto rose up and punched one of the weird guys, causing a domino effect. "I'm not going to let you take all the good parts like that." he panted out.
I was surprised that Naruto still had the strength to do that. He used an extreme amount of chakra over the 5 days, but could still defeat these three single handedly.
"Pretty good. But we're still not done yet. Time is running out. We'll show you our ninja techniques now. Ninpou, Oboro Bunshin no Jutsu." one of them shouted. Replications appeared.
"Are those shadow replications?" I asked.
"No. They're regular. But they must have some strategic plan to this. Be careful." said Sasuke.
"Heh. If they're just replications, there's only one real one. I'll beat up everyone until I hit the real one." scoffed Naruto.
"No, Naruto! You used enough energy already. You could pass out or die, even!" I warned.
"It's a waste of energy!" shouted Sasuke.
"Shut up! I told you not to interfere!" shouted Naruto. He jumped in, punching at different clones. They were all fake.
Sasuke suddenly keeled over. I saw those weird marks, burning and spreading again.
"Sasuke-kun! Don't use your Sharingan anymore!" shouted Sakura.
Naruto stared at us.
"DON'T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN!" shouted one of the clones. He raised a kunai and aimed to stab Naruto. Kabuto-san ran over and pushed Naruto away. While doing that, he got cut.
Naruto became angry and yelled.
"Stop! Naruto! No matter how much you try, the real one isn't in those replications." shouted Sasuke.
"Byakugan." I muttered. Sasuke was right. The crowd of clones were all just bits of chakra.
"Then where's the enemy going to attack from? If they are normal replications, the replications themselves can't attack us!"
I scanned the area. They were nowhere to found. Not in the trees, the bushes, the sky. Where were they? I gasped. "Naruto! They're attacking from the ground!"
At that point, they appeared out and threw a kunai at Kabuto-san. It cut his face and knocked off his glasses. Naruto kicked one in the head, and they all went down, in that same domino effect.
"Heh. Don't let your guard down, huh?" panted Naruto.
"Ah, thank you, Naruto. You saved me." said Kabuto-san.
"How did you get that?" asked Kabuto-san. He stared at Sasuke's neck. "It looks like a big bruise."
"It's nothing." muttered Sasuke.
Naruto was busy rummaging in those 3 shinobis' pockets. "Ha! I found it! Look! It's a Scroll of Heaven!"
"YES!" I whooped.
The tower door was right in front of us now. I wiped off sweat. 5 days of trying to survive with fear was a toughie.
Two shinobi came to us.
"Oh, it's just you..." said one of them. "You're late, Kabuto."
"I was caught up in some trouble. Sorry."
"But, but, thanks to you, we got the two scrolls." thanked Naruto.
"No, it's because of your hard work." Kabuto-san assured us. "Especially that last move, it was incredible, Naruto-kun. We'll go through this door. Good luck to all of us."
He gave us a thumbs up. I grinned.
"Aahh..." I sighed. I put my arms around Naruto. "Let's open the door, Naruto." We both reached our hands for a knob. Grinning to each other, we slowly opened them. Walking into the room, we saw nothing. Except for a sign on the wall.
"No one's here..." said Sakura.
"Sakura, I'm okay now." said Sasuke. He stopped using Sakura for support.
"Hey, hey, what are we supposed to do?" whined Naruto.
"Look at that! If you do not possess Heaven... I don't understand... If you do not possess Heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared. If you do not possess Earth, run through the fields and seek strength. If you open both Heaven and Earth scrolls, dangerous paths turn into safe paths. This is the secret of something something... It shall lead you on your way." read Sakura.
"If we only have strength, gain knowledge. If we only have knowledge, seek strength. Once we've done that, then everything will be easier." I remarked.
"That part looks like it's missing a letter." said Naruto.
"It's probably referring to the scrolls. I think it's telling us to open both Heaven and Earth scrolls." Sakura took the scrolls and handed one to Naruto. They both trembled, as they started unravel the scrolls.
"Here goes." I grinned.
