Chapter Sixteen: Into the Mist
The journey through the Land of Lightning was a mostly silent one. The portion of Kichiro's band led by Yukina walked in a single file line across the rough terrain. As always, no one dared to complain. They all knew that if they revealed their dissatisfaction, Yukina would certainly dispose of them herself and that she would take pleasure in doing so.
Yoiko remained at the end of the line, kicking small rocks along the way. She thought of Yumi and smiled. Yoiko knew that if nothing else, Yumi no longer had to endure the intimidation and harsh tactics of Lord Kichiro.
For some reason, Yoiko's mind shifted to Yasu and a chill traveled down her spine. Although she and Yasu were not friends, Yoiko could sense that something had happened to her. She wondered if Yukina sensed it, too. Even if Yukina did, Yoiko knew Yukina's heart did not know compassion so it wouldn't matter.
Although they knew she could be cruel, no other kunoichi in the band knew what truly mattered to Yukina, and even her physical appearance was a mystery. Her face was always covered in a white mask that matched the white bodysuit and cloak she typically wore. The mask had no opening for the eyes, nose or mouth. It was just a white barrier that kept the world from seeing Yukina and their Lord believed it was better that way.
As their band approached the summit of a mountain, they stopped briefly to rest. Fifteen minutes into their break, Yukina turned to the band to alert them that enemies were quickly approaching.
"They're here," Yukina said, just seconds later. Her voice was raspy and a touch robotic, but there was something Yoiko enjoyed about it. It gave away the fact that Yukina was young like everyone else, despite Yukina's godlike qualities.
Just then, the enemies were in view. Shinobi from the Hidden Cloud ran toward Kichiro's kunoichi from the front and from behind.
"Shall I assist?" Yoiko yelled to Yukina.
"No, save your power for the summit," Yukina replied. Over fifty skilled enemies surrounded them and ordered Kichiro's kunoichi to stand down. Yukina ran at several of them, dodging their attacks effortlessly. The other kunoichi stayed in defensive mode while Yukina took on the Cloud shinobi alone.
"Art of the Goddess: Bone to Ash jutsu!" Yukina said.
Immediately, all of the enemies let out blood-curdling screams and turned to dust before the other kunoichi's eyes. Yoiko had seen that jutsu before, but she had never seen it used on so many people at once. She then grabbed hold of two very terrified younger kunoichi who were shaking near her and whispered to them.
"If you value your lives, stop up your tears," Yoiko said. The two younger kunoichi nodded and dried their eyes quickly.
"Keep moving," Yukina ordered the group. She did not face the other kunoichi when she addressed them, but they immediately fell in line and proceeded quietly as they had before.
A gust of wind scattered the ashes of the annihilated Cloud shinobi away. As instantly as they had arrived, they were gone.
At the summit, Yukina instructed the kunoichi to form a circle around a large stone. Under that stone was the entrance to a passageway which led to body armor of the Goddess of Fire.
The Goddess's tools were scattered around the world, and they were extraordinarily hard to use even if one managed to find one, but that wasn't an issue for someone with Yukina's powers.
The kunoichi around Yukina were there to form and maintain a barrier around the area so that others would not interfere with Yukina's mission to retrieve the body armor. As Yukina approached the stone to crush it with her jutsu, she felt an unfamiliar presence.
"RASENGAN!"
To Kichiro's kunoichi's surprise, out of the stone popped a disheveled but eager Narumi Uzumaki, who managed to graze Yukina's arm before Yukina vanished.
"Hey, you were supposed to let me go first!" Naruto said, as he jumped from behind Narumi.
"Don't be such a baby! Where the hell did she go anyway?" Narumi looked around at the stunned kunoichi who sat frozen in their circle formation, "Oh, Creepy Phantom Kunoichi, where are you?"
"Yeah, that'll bring her back," Naruto said sarcastically.
Narumi was just about to reply with some sass of her own, but she sensed Yukina. Right before Yukina struck her, Narumi leapt back and summoned ten shadow clones.
"You might want to help me out here!" Narumi's clones said to Naruto. Naruto summoned ten clones of his own to assist her. In a blink of an eye, Yukina cut down every version of Naruto and Narumi on that summit.
Luckily, they were all clones. In the distance, the real Naruto and Narumi had watched the scene play out. They were riding on a large black bird, which was a shadow-beast summoning gift from Narumi's friend, Shikara.
"She's deadly, huh?" Narumi said, "What do you think, should we attack from the air?"
"With what?" Naruto responded, "I don't think I have any jutsu that will work at this distance."
"Rasen-Shuriken?"
"No, I can't...I can't use that right now,"
Narumi sighed. They were not ready to go up against someone that powerful with their usual jutsu. There had to be something else. Narumi then tried to infuse the chakra she had received from the Lady Kanoko of her world, but she noticed something strange.
Narumi's reserve of Goddess chakra was full before she entered Naruto's world under the instruction of her own Kakashi sensei. She had hardly used any, and yet there appeared to be none in her body.
"Naruto, something's wrong," Narumi said in a soft voice. It was unlike her to be so suddenly afraid.
"What do you mean?" he said, "Are you hungry or something? Tired? Is it one of those, you know...girl things?"
Usually Narumi would laugh at that type of comment, but she had lost her sense of humor. The giant black bird soared higher in the sky, and Naruto was concerned that they would lose sight of Kichiro's kunoichi. Little did he know, that would soon be the least of his worries.
Narumi attempted to mentally contact her sensei who was still in the Kanoko time-space. When she finally connected to him, she could hear that he sounded unusually depressed. She asked him if something had happened and there was a long pause.
"Narumi," her Kakashi said, "We can talk about it when you get back."
"But sensei something is wrong right now! I feel it. Do you know if anything has happened back home?"
Her Kakashi did not answer for several seconds.
"Narumi," the sadness took hold of his voice, "I'm sorry...it's..."
Narumi clenched her teeth and balled her fists. She was shaking.
"It's Lady Kanoko, isn't it?" Narumi said.
"I am sorry, but yes. I just sense it. Our Lady Kanoko...she's..."
"She's gone."
Naruto looked back to see Narumi sitting crossed legged with her eyes closed. That was the moment, the absolute quiet before the storm. The area around them took on a reddish tint and then the orange-reddish chakra cloak manifested around Narumi.
When Narumi's eyes reopened, they were red and wild. A strong fear filled Naruto's heart. It was something so familiar to him, yet so incredibly terrifying to witness from the outside.
"NOOOO!" Narumi's voice traveled through the sky in every direction.
Her voice fused with that of the beast inside of her. One tail appeared, then two, then three. She then leaped down toward the summit, shattered the barrier the rogue kunoichi had formed.
"Oh no. Oh, no, no, no, no!" Naruto said. He looked down as he tried to keep his grip on the back of the shadow-beast bird, "This is beyond bad! Where's Captain Yamato when you need him?"
Naruto guided the bird down toward the summit where Narumi had landed. The nine tails's power had taken over Narumi's mind and Naruto created many shadow clones to try to contain her attacks.
The nine tails roared, which stunned most of Kichiro's kunoichi, but Yukina slowly and calmly walked toward the transforming Narumi.
"Hey, Kunoichi Kakashi, could we get a little help here?" Naruto said, telepathically.
In the time-space a distracted Kakashi heard Naruto's call.
"Damn it, I knew she'd be upset by the news, but I didn't expect this to happen so quickly," Kakashi, "I'm not supposed to make any moves until the other me gets to the Mist, but..."
"Allow me to assist you then," Tenten appeared before him in the time-space and bowed.
Her voice had a slight echo to it, and both of her entire eyes glowed orange. It was a sight straight from one of the myths Saku's Kakashi grew up reading.
"Tenten, your chakra is incredible. Those lessons paid off after all, didn't they?" Kakashi said.
"Yes, but that's not all," Tenten said, "A Fire guardian lent me her power. I can teleport now, among other things. If you want me to go stop the nine Tails transformation, I believe I can do it."
"I love the confidence, kid," Kakashi said, "Okay. Show me what you got."
With that, Tenten disappeared from his sight. The silence made the reality of his own version of Lady Kanoko's death painful, but he decided to soldier on.
"This is the least I can do for you now, my lady," he said, "We won't let you down. I promise."
With the guardian's chakra, Tenten felt invincible. She appeared on the summit between Yukina and the transforming Narumi. She thrusted a palm toward Narumi and deity chains flew out.
"That girl, we've seen her before...she's a Leaf kunoichi," Yoiko thought, "But where did all of this power come from?"
The chains quickly covered Narumi and suppressed her transformation. Once back to her form, she fell to the grown and knocked out.
By making a single hand sign, Tenten encased all of Kichiro's kunoichi in orange glass.
Naruto watched Tenten's technique from the back of the shadow bird. His mouth was wide open in shock as he observed her.
"Don't just hover there," Tenten said to Naruto when she was done, "Get down here, and help take care of your sister!"
"Narumi's not...actually, after seeing what you just did, I'm not even going to bother correcting you on that."
As they tended to Narumi, Naruto explained to Tenten that the possessed Lady Kanoko had suddenly disappeared as they were fighting her and that they had been sucked into a vortex and separated from the others. Narumi and Naruto had found Kichiro's kunoichi by tracking the nearest source of strong Goddess chakra who happened to be Yukina.
"That must mean that Kichiro is ready to fully take our Lady Kanoko over," Tenten said, "He seems to be testing out his control of the time-space portal. We have to connect to the others as soon as possible."
In the meantime, Ino (who was still in Sakura's body) and Tashiro were brought to the village Hidden in the Mist to be punished for their crimes. The Mist Anbu said that Tashiro would also be charged as a rogue ninja, which made his chances of being executed high.
Tashiro did not care about the possibility of his execution. He had failed to separate the true Kichiro Hayashi from the impostor, Katsu, and for that he believed death might have been what he deserved.
The Mist Anbu threw the disguised Ino and Tashiro into a holding cell where they were to stay overnight. The two prisoners sat opposite one another on the cold, hard ground for hours before Ino spoke.
"Why did you leave the Mist?" she said. Tashiro looked into Sakura's eyes and sighed.
"Probably for the same reason you left the Leaf," Tashiro said, "I wanted to be a hero, I suppose. To save someone I really care about. I can tell you're the same way. You seem to have the same deep compassion for those around you. Remember the incident with the younger kunoichi you saved?"
Ino stared at him blankly. The curse mark prevented Ino from accessing Sakura's consciousness and memories. She had to improvise again.
"Maybe this isn't the best place to talk about it," Ino said, finally sounding like Sakura. Tashiro smiled and Ino melted inside.
"Okay, I don't think anyone is around, but still...I really like you, Sakura. And please know that I'll do all that I can to keep you safe."
"What about your safety?" Ino said.
Tashiro shrugged.
"I'll worry about myself," Tashiro said, "Don't let a guy like me mess up your life. I'll make this right somehow."
One of the Anbu soon returned to address them.
"How are you two lovebirds doing?" he said.
Ino and Tashiro didn't respond.
"What? Nothing?" the Anbu continued, "Not even a word from you, pink hair?"
"I don't have anything to say to you, not that I'd want to," Ino said in Sakura's voice, "The only thing I want is to be free, but it's not like you would help me with that."
The Anbu moved his face closer to the cell door. He lifted his mask.
"You'd be surprised at how helpful I could be,"
"Kakashi sensei?!" Ino said.
"Shhh, I can't help loudmouths," Kakashi said. Kakashi entered their cell and lowered his voice.
"How, why, when...what are you doing here?" Ino asked, "Also, which Kakashi are you?"
"Shizune and I were headed to the Mist and we ran into Tenzo who had been tracking you. Before we went to look for you all, the other me contacted us to fill us in a bit, but then something happened and we lost the connection. We weren't in contact long enough to know how that turned out though. Oh, and I'm the Kakashi you've known the longest, and I'm the coolest one, might I add."
"Yeeeeeah, you're definitely Naruto's- I mean, my Kakashi sensei!" Ino said, "What exactly are you doing in the Mist?"
"I'm looking for the leader of the Minazuki clan. I have to speak to him immediately, but I'll be back for you later."
Ino looked at Tashiro.
"When you get back, could my friend here tag along with us?" she said to Kakashi, "He wants to fight Kichiro as well."
Kakashi signed.
"As long as he isn't too much trouble," Kakashi put the Anbu mask back on, "But you're responsible for him, Sakura. If you can't handle him, I will."
Kakashi held his hand out and lightning quickly danced around it. He then smiled as Tashiro laughed nervously.
"Don't worry, I can handle him," Ino winked at her fellow prisoner. When Kakashi left, she moved to sit next to Tashiro.
"So I'm part of the team now?" Tashiro asked.
"Almost," Ino said, "If you want to officially be a part of the team, you're going to have to tell me everything I need to know about you.
"And will you tell me more about yourself?" he said.
"In time," Ino said.
—
Before Kakashi approached the head of the Minazuki clan's home, Shizune caught up with him.
"Find anything interesting?" he said.
"Yeah, but it's not much. They were going over upgrading their security in the meeting I was just in, but then something happened. A lot of the Anbu suddenly ran out, they all seemed to know something I didn't."
"And I think I know where they went," Kakashi looked far down the path ahead and saw people, Anbu and civilians, standing near the Minazuki leader's home.
"It would appear that the Minazuki clan elder has been kidnapped," one of them said as Shizune and Kakashi approached.
"I bet it was those damn Leaf Shinobi who did this! I heard the Land of Fire has infiltrated our nation."
"Sounds like Leaf scum to me," Yamato said, trying to blend in more with the Mist Anbu.
"Maybe it was the Akatsuki!" a nearby civilian shouted.
"The Akatsuki? Ha! You really think those amateurs are in the same league as me?" "Kichiro" said before he made himself visible to them, "What an insult!"
He cut down several of the people who had gathered outside of the Minazuki elder's house before the disguised Yamato attempted to trap him with a powerful water style jutsu. "Kichiro" evaded the attack and used the lightning blade technique he had stolen from Kakashi to pierce through Yamato's abdomen.
Kakashi was paralyzed by shock for a moment, but Shizune grabbed his arm and signaled for them to get ready to move.
"Ki-Kichiro, you monster!" Shizune said.
"Kichiro is dead, just as your comrade here will soon be," the villain replied, as he tossed Yamato to the side, "Let it be known that I am the new and improved Lord Katsu Minazuki and I-"
"Talk far too much, my Lord," Yumi said. She, Hinata, and Sakumaru appeared in time, wearing masks they took from the Goddess of Fire's temple. Their chakra was strong and they were more than ready to fight.
Hinata rushed Katsu and disabled several of his chakra points before delivering a powerful kick that sent him straight through the Minazuki leader's home.
Kakashi and Shizune ran to tend to Yamato as the civilians fled.
Yumi and Hinata ran after Katsu. The Anbu were headed after them as well, but Sakumaru stopped them.
"Don't," Saku said, "You'll die if you follow them."
"How dare you speak to us like this! You have invaded our land and you have the audacity to-"
Sakumaru forced the Anbu far away from the entrance of the Minazuki leader's house with an Earth style jutsu without breaking a sweat.
"Look, I'm not the most patient guy in the world," Saku said through gritted teeth, "I'm going after them now, but like I said, if you follow me, you will die. And if Katsu doesn't kill you, know that I will if you get in my way!"
With that, Sakumaru ran after his kunoichi comrades.
