I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Ambush
Menma sighed, taking another piece of meet off of his skewer under his mask.
"Relax Sakura," Menma said. "We'll find him. Besides, it's not like anyone said dealing with Orochimaru would be easy."
"You're right," Sakura nodded, taking a bite of her own.
On Menma's other side, Hinata remained quiet as she ate. Suddenly, the same ninja as before tumbled out of the trees, landing in the road in front of them.
"Well well," Menma said, eating his last piece of meat and throwing the stick off the road. "Look who it is. Our old friend."
The ninja looked up at them, eyes wide, and tried to stand. Before they could, they winced, eyes closing in pain as they grunted, dropping back to their knees and holding their right shoulder in pain.
"What happened?" Menma asked.
Just then, a massive group of kunai shot out of the bushes at all of them. Before it could reach them, they scattered, Menma grabbing the injured ninja that had attacked them before as he moved. He landed out of the way of the kunai as a ninja wielding, what appeared to be, a massive pair of sheers appeared beside him, stabbing at him. He jumped over it and spun, kicking the ninja away before landing and beginning to run with his injured passenger, Hinata and Sakura fleeing as well, two more ninja attacking them. the one attacking Sakura had a log on his back with something covering in mesh netting extending from one end and a scar across his right eye. The one attacking Hinata had a massive overbite, to the point of looking almost comical, and massively disproportionate fists, making the rest of his body look small.
Before Menma could escape, his opponent appeared in front of him, slashing him across the middle. Then, both he and his passenger were covered in a cloud of smoke, two split logs dropping to the ground. A moment later, both Hinata and Sakura escaped using Substitution Jutsus as well. Menma watched the three as he fled, using his senses. All three were fairly strong. Though, not so much as for Naruto to suspect he'd lose a fight to them. The one that had attacked Hinata was actually the strongest, though. After a bit, Hinata and Sakura both met up with Naruto and the three of them stopped at an abandoned house a ways away from the road, a very long flight of stairs leading up to the actual building. It had only one room, so Menma knew instantly from the dust that it didn't see much traffic. Not that he expected it to. It was a bit off the beaten path.
"Alright," Menma sighed, after watching out the door for a few minutes. "I think we're clear."
"Now that we're safe, I should take a look at that injury," Sakura said. "I have some medicine so that it won't get infected."
The ninja looked up at her, eyes widening, then looked to Menma.
"Relax," Menma said. "I can just heal the wound for you, no stripping required."
Sakura blinked and looked at him, confused, until she realized why that would matter.
"Oh," Sakura blinked. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize..."
"It's alright," the ninja said as Menma stepped around behind her, holding a hand over her injured shoulder, green chakra forming around it. "My name is Sasame Fuma."
"My name's Menma Uzumaki," Menma said, finishing healing her wound and stepping back as she reach up, pulling her mask off, letting her long orange hair fall down her back. "Better?"
"Yes," Sasame nodded. "Thank you."
Menma nodded and Sakura stepped forward.
"I'm Sakura Haruno," Sakura introduced herself. "It's nice to meet you on friendlier terms."
"I'm Hinata Hyuga," Hinata spoke up. "If you don't mind me asking, why were those ninja chasing you? And who were they?"
"They're Sound Ninja," Sasame said. "They're job is to safeguard Orochimaru. I attacked you before because I believed you were in league with them."
"So then when we asked if you were working for Orochimaru you realized your mistake," Menma summarized."
"Yes," Sasame said, bowing. "I'm sorry for wrongly attacking you."
"Don't worry about it," Menma smiled. "No harm done. But, can you tell us as much as you know about the Hidden Sound? We're here to investigate it and, hopefully, destroy both it and Orochimaru."
Sasame nodded.
"The Land of Rice Patties is not a large nation," Sasame began. "But our Feudal Lord wished to increase our standing among the neighboring nations. Our defeat was obvious even from the beginning. We've never had very many shinobi. Afterward, all of the shinobi clans fell into poverty. Some left, other sunk as low as common thievery. However, others have struggled on in the shadows, hoping for a time when we can become strong again. Then, one day, my clan was approached by an emissary from the Hidden Sound Village. He promised us a chance at having the first Great SHinobi Village in the Land of Rice Patties. But in return, we have to serve Orochimaru. My cousin, Arashi, was seen as the best hope for our clan's revival. He was sent as a representative of our clan. But..."
"But nothing changed," Menma guessed when Sasame stopped speaking, tears running down her cheeks.
"We just kept waiting for some sort of message to come from Arashi, but there's still no word from him," Sasame said.
"Sounds like we're on a rescue mission then," Menma said, Sasame looking up at him in shock. "You were going to tell us that you're going to save him, right?"
Tears welled up in Sasame's eyes again but she smiled and nodded.
"Then we'll give you a hand," Menma said. "Besides, if you meet Orochimaru while you're trying to save Arashi, you'll be killed. With us there, you won't."
Sakura and Hinata both looked up at him, unsure about their own chances for survival if they met Orochimaru, but remained silent.
"Thank you!" Sasame said, wiping her eyes.
Menma grinned and nodded just as a spider descended from the ceiling in front of him. His smile faded as he slowly looked up. Neji had told him about Kidomaru and his ability to summon spiders to fight for him. Judging by the millions on the ceiling above them, that's exactly what was going on now.
"Oh boy," Menma sighed. "This isn't good."
He turned, walking to the door and pushing it open, finding the world outside covered in webs. A voice somewhere in the distance laughed.
"Ninja Art, Wind Spiders," the voice said. "My darling children have spun threads of the purest silk, and led me right to you."
"Is that all?" Menma snorted. "You had me scared for a moment there. I was worried I was up against another Kidomaru."
"You know Master Kidomaru?" the voice asked. "How are you alive?"
"He's not, that's how," Menma said. "A friend of mine killed him. Now, I'll take you out. You're nowhere near as terrifying as Kidomaru."
Menma swiped his hand through the webs and smirked as they broke easily. Then, he leapt to the ground and formed a dozen clones, all of them spreading out around and over the building, looking around.
"Born to be born," a new voice spoke up. "Breathing but to live. One sunrise and one sunset. Kagero's life, like a mayfly, lasts a single day. Pity one so ephemeral is in itself so pitiable. Know that I am at my greatest when lying in the deep and dark of the Earth."
The ground began to shake violently. Menma crouched, placing a hand on the ground to steady himself, his clones all doing the same, before the man who had attacked Hinata before appeared beside them. Or, at least, his head did, rising out of the ground.
"Ninja Art, Antlion Jutsu!" the man, Kagero, shouted as the ground around him began to drop into a sinkhole with him as the center.
Within seconds it reached the building.
"Everybody out!" Menma shouted as the building pitched sideways, he and all of his clones falling into the sand.
He began to try to sand but his hands and feet simply kept moving under the sand which began to try and crush them almost instantly. Menma swore, pulling them free just as Jiraiya appeared over him.
"Summoning Jutsu!" Jiraiya shouted, summoning a toad who shot its tongue out to a clone.
As it began to pull the clone up, Menma and another clone grabbed its front foot. Sure enough, Kagero hurled two kunai into the clone holding the tongue, destroying it it.
"Another clone!" Kagero cursed. "Where is he?"
"Over here!" Menma shouted, hurling his clone at Kagero.
Kagero jumped out of the way of the punch, the sand crushing the clone almost instantly as it swallowed him, before Menma landed on the ground and jumped to Kagero, slamming a Rasengan into his abdomen, sending him flying into a massive boulder. Menma landed on the side of the now still sinkhole and sighed.
"That could have gotten bad," Menma sighed.
He looked up at the side where the building had been and saw Sakura, Hinata, and Sasame all standing along the edge. He jumped out of the pit, landing beside them as Jiraiya walked over.
"Thanks for the save," Menma said.
"Of course," Jiraiya said. "So, who's your pretty new friend?"
"Sasame Fuma," Menma said. "She's going to be helping us, and in exchange we're going to be rescuing her cousin from Orochimaru. Oh, and Jiraiya. Watch your stare."
Jiraiya blinked in confusion before realizing what he meant.
"You think I'd make a pass at her!?" Jiraiya gaped. "She's too young for me first of all and it's like you think that's all I think about!"
"Pretty much," Sakura grumbled. "Just stay away from her."
Jiraiya sighed.
"Can we just get back to trying to find out Orochimaru's hideout location?" Jiraiya complained.
"If that's where you want to go, I can show you the way," Sasame said.
"Excellent," Menma nodded, looking around.
"Please do," Hinata said.
Sasame nodded and stood, turning and leaping into the branches of the trees nearby, the others following. Menma looked back at the others with his senses and saw that the other two had retrieved Kagero's body. Then, all of a sudden, Kagero's chakra returned, stronger than before. Menma kept quiet about it. No need to alert the others over that yet. He could probably still deal with Kagero alone.
Read and review.
