A/N: Time to use some under-valued characters in this fic. This one should make a few of you happy.
Time for chapter 86
Enjoy!
Shikamaru took a sip from his water canteen as he, Temari, Kankuro, Yuna, and Izumi ran across the desert. They had been sent out of the village to perform a simple sweep of the outer borders, which, while simple, was incredibly boring and monotonous.
"God, I'm going to get so badly sunburned" Yuna groaned as she wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. Temari sighed and whipped a stream of cool air her way with her fan.
"I asked you if you wanted to bring sunscreen, but you told me you'd be fine" she said. The red-eyed girl shielded her eyes from the intense sunlight and blew a strand of hair out of her face.
"I hate being albino. I can't even tan. I'm always just a ghost-white stick with limbs. Even my eyes are weird" she grumbled. Izumi chuckled and slicked back her hair, which was damp with sweat.
"Having white hair would actually be kind of handy in this kind of heat. It doesn't absorb as much sunlight. Mine is disgusting right now" she said. Kankuro, who was walking next to Shikamaru, nudged the shadow user and grinned.
"I'll say" he said as quietly as he could. Unfortunately for the puppeteer, the Miura girl's ears were sharp. She shot Kankuro a glare and reached for her blade.
"Want me to scalp you? Because I'm more than willing" she said dangerously. Kankuro shook his head rapidly and clammed his mouth shut. Temari whistled and slapped Izumi on the back.
"Man, even I can't shut him up like that. Nice job, kid" she said with an approving nod. The Miura girl grinned and let her grip on the hilt of her sword loosen and drop.
"It's not that hard. All you have to do is give him a reason to be afraid of you beyond a physical beating. 'Scalp' is a code word." she said. Temari's eyes widened.
"What did you do to him?" she asked, almost afraid of a potential answer. Izumi shrugged and opened her canteen of water, which she promptly spilled over her head.
"The better question is: what didn't I do to him?" she said. Kankuro audibly squeaked in feminine fashion, eliciting a fit of laughter from all three of his comrades.
"Look, as much as I sympathize with you, I can't really feel all that bad for you. She's Kron's sister. What did you expect when you walked into this?" Shikamaru asked as he calmed himself down. The puppeteer shook his head.
"I didn't walk in. I peered into the abyss, and that she-demon dragged me in. Since then, it's been a never ending game of Cat and Mouse" he said tiredly. Izumi slid up next to him and latched on to his arm.
"I don't see you trying to climb out, Kankuro-kun" she pointed out wryly. Kankuro sighed and nodded, earning a happy grin from his unconventional partner. As the group trekked on, they discussed various topics, from Gaara's secret fear of scorpions to how many pushups each of them could do without stopping. After several minutes of patrolling, Izumi stopped and motioned for the rest of the party to do the same.
"We have company. They're around a mile out, and at the pace they're moving, they'll be on top of us in around three minutes" she said, her eyes glued north. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow.
"How do you know all of that?" he asked skeptically. The Miura girl shrugged and tapped her forehead.
"Like my brother, I'm a sensor. I'm a much better one than he is, though. I can almost visualize what I sense, and I can determine distance" she said. The shadow user nodded and looked in the direction she was looking.
"Can you determine the identities of these oncoming ninja?" he asked. Izumi focused her senses, delving deeper into the chakra signatures. After a moment, her eyes snapped open.
"Well, that's a surprise. There are around ten of them, and one of them feels a whole lot like my mother" she said. Yuna snapped to attention and tensed.
"What? Are you absolutely sure?" she asked. The Miura girl nodded and drew her Tanto, which, unlike her brother's, was always polished and sharpened.
"Yup. Don't worry, you can have her, Yuna-san. I know how much you hate her. I'll just carve up the rest of the poor schmucks" she said with a dark grin. Shikamaru glanced around at this comrades.
"So, I guess that means that the arrangement is as follows. We all clear space for Yuna to deal with Izumi's mother, which means that we're going to be fighting a large group of ninja" he said. Temari snorted.
"Oh, come on. Ten ninja isn't all that many. I'd be surprised if this took more than five minutes. It's on you to finish the job quickly, Yuna-san" she said. The albino girl shook her head and cracked her knuckles.
"No, I'm going to enjoy this. I'm drawing this out" she said darkly. The rest of the party all flinched a bit at her sanguinary tone. Despite their discomfort, they all assumed their stances and awaited the arrival of the small band of Kumo ninja. After three minutes, exactly as Izumi had predicted, the enemy party came into view. Further validating the Miura girl's claims of sensory superiority to her brother, Dante Miura lead the pack.
"Spot on. Nice, Izumi" Kankuro complimented. Izumi grinned and allowed a bit of electrical chakra to spark from her body.
"Let's meet them in the middle" she said. Before anybody could answer, she disappeared from sight. She became visible again a moment later. She had crossed the gap between herself and the Kumo ninja in an instant, using one of the shinobi as a landing pad for her Tanto, impaling him through the chest. Chaos then ensued, with Izumi aggressively attacking the other nine ninja, save for Dante, whom she had promised to leave for Yuna.
"Like brother like sister, I guess. We should probably go help" Temari said. The group nodded and sprinted towards the fray. Once they reached the group, which seemed to be genuinely struggling with Izumi by her lonesome, they split off to engage separate ninja. Yuna, on the other hand, kept running straight, the direction that would fast-track her to Dante. After a split second sprint, she reached the matriarch of the Miura clan, stopping roughly twenty feet from the woman. From the look on Dante's face, she had been expecting the silent challenge.
"The moment I caught wind of your chakra, I figured that you would come looking for me. A sweet gesture, but not quite as surprising as I'd be willing to bet you wanted it to be" the Miura woman said, a smirk on her face. The white haired girl scowled and assumed a taijutsu stance.
"Sweet isn't the word I'd use. Don't try to talk your way out of this, Dante. You have nowhere to run" she said. Dante chuckled and drew her blade.
"Now, why would I run from you, Yuna-san? Izumi is likely a step or two ahead of you combat-wise, and I'm more than capable of shutting her down. What could you poss-" she began arrogantly. Before she could finish the sentence, Yuna doubled her over with a vicious punch to the stomach, having closed the gap between them blindingly quickly.
"Don't compare me to your brat. I'm a different animal entirely" she whispered in the woman's ear. She then removed her fist from her gut and shoved her backwards. Dante regained her footing and charged the albino girl, swinging her Tanto at her head. Yuna grinned and leaned back, causing the arcing blade to miss her face by mere centimeters. As the Miura woman overextended and fell over her own feet, Yuna pivoted to her right and slammed a punch into the left side of Dante's jaw.
The woman's knees buckled, forcing her to stumble awkwardly away. Once she re-balanced herself, she glared at Yuna, who was admiring her work.
"That's a new look. When did you learn to pull-counter?" she asked, rubbing her jaw as she spoke. The white-haired girl shrugged and cracked her knuckles.
"Your son's a good teacher. Among other things. I think you'll find that I'm quite a bit stronger than Izumi-san" she said. The Miura woman charged forward once more, this time running herself into a sharp step-knee from Yuna, breaking one of her ribs and forcing her back again.
"As silky-smooth a counter-striker as I am, I feel like beating you up on my terms now" the Albino girl said, brimming with satisfied confidence. She then leapt forward and snapped Dante's head back with a left handed punch, easily weaving her way around the woman's wild, bladed swing. Before Dante could fall to her rear end, Yuna's hand shot out and seized the front of her shirt, pulling her upright once more.
"Genjutsu: Pagan Choir" the white-haired girl whispered in her ear. At Yuna's words, the world became silent and still for Dante. Her eyes darted around, confusion gripping her as she tried and failed to process what was happening.
"Falsa autem matris ejus morietur"
The Miura Matriarch whipped around to see another Yuna, dressed in all black with iris-less eyes, standing behind her. Soon, the doppelganger became two, then four, then eight, and finally sixteen. The variations of Yuna formed themselves into a circle around Dante and the original Yuna, who still had hold of the woman's shirt. The albino girl then dropped Dante, allowing her to fall to her knees.
"I'll leave you to have fun with them. They have much to say, and you have no choice but to listen" she said with a sadistic grin. As Dante opened her mouth to protest, a tree root emerged from the ground and bound her ankle, effectively anchoring her to the ground. The original Yuna then exited the circle, which was growing smaller and smaller as the doppelgangers closed in on the woman.
"Falsa autem matris ejus morietur" they chanted in unison, their voices haunting and beautiful. As the circle tightened further, Dante curled into the fetal position and covered her ears. Despite her efforts, the voices still pierced her eardrums, ravaging her mind viciously.
It was then that Dante Miura, a cruel, cold woman, cried herself to insanity.
Temari closed her fan and surveyed her handywork. She had killed four of the ten ninja, leaving only Kankuro's batch, who were on the verge of death anyways. Izumi had killed three ninja, and Shikamaru had merely directed the four ninja Temari had ended to their demise with his shadow possession. The fan wielder glanced to her left, and furrowed her eyebrows. Yuna, who had engaged Dante several minutes ago, was standing over the woman, a victorious look on her face.
What caught Temari's attention, however, was not the fact that the Albino girl had clearly won her fight. It was the fact that Dante was more or less uninjured, save for a bruised jaw and some minor lacerations. Even more puzzlingly, she was rocking back and forth with a look of wide-eyed shock on her face. Her lips were moving, suggesting that she was mumbling to herself as well.
"Hey! Earth to Temari!"
The fan wielder snapped out of her trance, her head spinning slightly. She now had a headache, and her balance was slightly off. She glanced over her shoulder to where the voice had called out to her from. Kankuro, Izumi, and Shikamaru were jogging towards her, all of them relatively unscathed.
"Looks like you were right. That barely took five minutes" Shikamaru said proudly. He then noticed the look on Temari's face and looked past her, spotting the disturbing scene.
"What the hell happened over there?" he asked, not quite sure if he wanted his own question to be answered or not. Despite his lack of commitment to actually asking the question legitimately, he received an answer almost immediately.
"Yuna put her in a genjutsu. A strong one from the looks of it. You should probably wait a bit before rushing in to say hello, because hypnosis that powerful can bleed into other people involuntarily" Izumi replied. Temari rubbed her temples and nodded.
"Yeah, just looking at her for too long gave me a headache" she said. The group silently watched the albino girl break her foe mentally, all of them feeling suddenly uncomfortable.
"I forget from time to time just how scary she really is. I mean, she's not my brother, but she's still really damn tough to beat. Especially when she uses her genjutsu" Izumi said as she tapped her foot on the ground nervously. After another thirty seconds or so, the tension in the air subsided, allowing the group to make their way to Yuna and the fallen Dante.
"Is she...dead?" Kankuro asked as he stared at the unmoving body of the Miura matriarch. Izumi knelt down and pressed a hand to her throat.
"No, she's alive, if barely. I think she's just-" she began. Before she could finish the thought, Yuna cut in with a dry, cold response.
"Shattered. She isn't dead, but she's going to be a vegetable for the foreseeable future. I made sure to show her something extravagant" the albino girl said. The group all shifted uncomfortably at the explanation of Dante's state. After a moment or two, they all decided to set up camp, quite far from the sight of the battle, of course.
Even in the safety of their sleeping bags, none of the ninja could find it within themselves to sleep soundly that night.
A/N: I've been getting requests to have Yuna fight, so I listened and gave her a moment to shine.
See you next chapter! Read and Review!