Naruto's stomach hungrily grumbled, as he softly chucked the earth scroll up and down in his hand. The embers of the nearby fire crackled away, spritzing into the cold air before fizzling away as quickly as they came. This added a much-needed another third layer of sound to a biome whose soundscapes really only consisted of crickets chirping and Sasuke nibbling at his squirrel meat skewer.
"Naruto, stop. That scroll is too important for you to play around with." Sakura scolded; eyeing how close Naruto was to the fire with slight worry.
"Alright, alright." Naruto agreed, taking the scroll and stuffing it in his pocket.
It was early in the morning of what was technically the first day of the stage. The darkness of the night had been begun to alleviate, while the faintest drops of daylight dripped into the sky. Sasuke estimated it was around two thirty in the morning but Team 7 had only just managed to set up shelter. They sat around a generally small but tall forest clearing which their fire had been situated in the middle of. While Sakura had attempted to give them some degree of fortification with booby-traps, it was still too lengthy and left too much covered space in which someone could scout them from for Sasuke's liking. They had not done particularly well on food either, catching only one squirrel that, when divided three ways, amounted to as much food as a small bag of potato chips. Suffice to say, their spirits were not currently soaring on anything resembling a high.
"Lonely out here, huh?" Naruto said, thinking out loud.
"What do you mean. We're all here." Sakura replied.
"No! That's not what I mean, it's just-…It's so quiet and stuff. It feels like we're the only people in here, and it's just forest for the rest of it." He clutched the chest of his jacket, pulling it closer into to himself. "It's kinda creepy.
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, wondering why Naruto had apparently gotten nervous when, due to missions, he'd most likely spent more nights sleeping in the forest than his bed in the last year. Then again, the last mission he'd spent in a location like that had been the one we're he'd encountered Ookami, so it was understandable why he'd be a little shaken up. Luckily, Sasuke knew just how to "unshake" him.
"Don't go getting the forest frets now Naruto, it's only the first day."
A fire immediately lit up under his eyes, potentially stronger than the one that was actually burning next to him.
"I do not have the frets! I'm just not used to sleeping in a place where there's ten billion people who want to steal your shit!"
"Didn't you just say it felt lonely?" Sakura asked, sending Naruto into a flailing rampage.
"You don't get it- "
"Shh!"
Naruto tried to yell, but was quickly cut off by Sasuke shushing him. The Uchiha's expression had snapped from a lazier one, to a steely fixed gaze that was aimed at something in particular. Sakura and Naruto looked at him with a duet of strange glances, receiving only a nod forwards from Sasuke in response.
Shhwyyyyyywwyy
A slow, rhythmic squeak gradually become audible from behind the trees, creating the illusion that it was getting closer. The three reached into their pocket, bracing their hands against the cold metal of their tools. Sakura looked sideways, making sure Naruto had the scroll fastened to him properly, before fully turning her attention back towards the hum.
Then it stopped.
A few seconds later, Dosu emerged out of the bushes, sleeves sagging down across his hands. Kin and Zaku flanked his back, a dull expression on both of their faces. Naruto broke out into a smile, dropping his guard completely while Sasuke and Sakura stayed in their defensive position. He didn't look as happy as he had before.
"Hey, Dosu!" Naruto greeted.
The boy was seemingly oblivious to the tension in the air. It was like a freestyle swimmer leaping into the middle of a tsunami, thinking it as their newest practice spot. Dosu said nothing in response, though his one eye did clearly track Naruto as he walked up to him.
"How ya' doing dude? I thought we were the only ones-"
Before Naruto could say another word, Dosu rolled his sleeve up and brandished his melody arm. The Uzumaki's quick reactions nearly kicked in in time to save him, but the attack came too fast for him to dodge. Dosu's melody arm slammed into the side of his head, knocking him down with a clank. Sound waves rippled off the blow, sending waves of disabled nausea down Naruto's mind as he collapsed to the ground.
"Please be quiet." Was all Dosu said, while the wide-eyed Naruto felt volts of sound course around his brain.
A jumble of surprisingly accurate shuriken shot out at the Sound ninja, the three not realizing they'd given Sasuke and Sakura ample time to angle up their throws. Kin leapt up in front of the group, brandishing needles between the slits of her fingers. Her arms moved quickly, scraping the senbon against the sharp metal of the shuriken and redirecting them out of the way of the Sound ninja.
Realizing their first attack had failed, Sasuke rushed forwards, hands weaving into seals. However, despite his impressive speed, he was unable to beat the swiftness of Zaku's sound blasts. The sound ninja pointed his hands out, a stream of fixed, solid sound shooting out from the openings on his hands. It hit him square in the chest and sent him flying back onto the grassy turf of the ground.
"Sasuke!" Sakura yelled, not breaking her guard for a second despite the concern.
In comparison to her fear-driven stiffness however, Dosu looked completely casual. His posture had already dipped into a slouched walk, though his eye remained coldly serious still. He turned back to his teammates with a nonchalant tilt of his head, barely even gracing them with his exposed eye.
"Alright, like we planned. Split those two up. The Uchiha is our main priority, only kill Mr. Uzumaki if you must. Ms. Haruno can be dispatched anyway you want; I don't really care. We have around ten minutes." He said, getting nods from the two teammates. Sakura's eyes widened at his words.
He quickly turned back to face Sasuke (who had now activated his sharingan) and Sakura. The eccentric boy clapped his hands together, sending slight shivers through his twitching fingertips.
"Alright! Let's go, let's go! No time to waste!" He squeaked, tone switching from sadistic to bubbly in less than a second.
Zaku aimed his hands at the ground before launching up into the air with trails of sound streaking through his trail. He landed between Sakura and Sasuke, using a sharp kick to space the former backwards. His pressure became unrelentingly focused on the girl, unleashing a taijutsu barrage that kept her pacing backwards from the security Sasukes presence had given her. The problem was, the ferocity of his attacks seemed to only be a front for his lack of actual technique. He hit hard, sure, but Sakura was more than able to keep up with him in hand-to-hand.
She backed away from another ferocious attack, dodging out of his range and kicking at his legs. This seemed to hurt Zaku enough that he was forced to concede momentum for a minute, Sakura chipping away at his legs with her attacks. The way he had started fighting, he'd seemed to have a constant need to be grounded, so by tripping him up, Sakura began to turn the tide in her favor. She crouched down low, attempting to sweep the boy off his feet. Her sandal grazed through his heels, eradicating any semblance of his balance and knocking Zaku off-center. With a quick kip-up, Sakura leapt forward, fast enough to try and lay into the boy before he had a chance to even fall down completely. Before she could even hope to touch him though, the holes on his palms suddenly widened. Strangely, this was the same effect that her eyes went through upon seeing this.
BANG!
A short-range but deadly powerful burst of sound ejected from the boy's palms like a shotgun blast, as opposed to the streams he'd been firing before. It connected flush with Sakura's face, sending her soaring back into the depths of the forest with Zaku quickly pursing her in accordance with the plan.
"Sakura!" Sasuke said, attempting to follow after them.
A quick burst of needles shot out of him, coating the path in front of them with their sharp metallic quills. Sasuke rolled through the barrage, not suffering even a scratch thanks to his sharingan-enhanced reflexes. He looked up at Dosu and Kin, the pairs gazes meeting his immediately. Despite their shared target, their looks could not seem any more different. Kin's was steely, and ultra-focused, whereas Dosu's was both jolly and a slight bit anxious.
"Dundundun-dun-dun." The bandaged boy sang to himself, fingers cracking along in rhythm.
Sasuke analyzed the two quickly. Kin did not have anything that really stood out aside from her ultra-tough demeanor, whereas Dosu's most visible point of interest lay on his wrist. A large metallic gauntlet with several holes that run over it. Whirring and ringing sounds occasionally jittered out from its openings, often times in tune with the notes that Dosu was muttering. Naruto's body continued to lay where Dosu had knocked him out, the boy not having moved an inch since the event happened.
Sasuke mashed his hands into seals, only for a rain of needles to ensure it was either attack or move. He chose the latter, rolling sideways but keeping his handsigns going. He leapt upward into the air, attempting to throw off Kin's aim as she reallocated herself to target him.
"Fire release: phoenix dandelion jutsu!" He yelled, unleashing a barrage of tiny fire balls along with his breath.
This jutsu was less powerful then his usual phoenix flower, with the fireballs themselves being only about the size of a water bottle but with this reduced mass came increased crowd control. The bullets of fire sizzled past the needles Kin attempted to throw at him, knocking each one off of its intended course while still having leftovers for the two-sound ninja. Dosu ran out in front of Kin, thrusting his melody arm out. Whispers of sounds that had been stored shot out of the gauntlet's holes and floated through the air like ghosts. There was enough power behind these shots to snuff the remaining fireballs out before they could reach the two.
Sasuke landed, running full steam ahead towards the two. He noticed a skittishness in Dosu's eye that had begun to display after the fire jutsu. He leapt forward, attempting to kick his fore in the head, only to be blocked by Kin. The girl sliced at him with the sharpness of her senbon, Sasuke backing away as to avoid their slashes. Dosu quickly joined her in her pursuit, the two constantly swapping their fighting formation in an attempt to throw Sasuke off his guard. Kin effortlessly weaved the needles around her knuckles, wielding them in the same way an animal would a pair of claws. Even with the power of the sharingan, she was still quick enough that Sasuke felt threatened. The sharp metal grazed past his cheek, leaving a shallow slash against it, before a second one shot forward with aim for his throat.
Sasuke leaned back, rolling over onto his shoulders to try and avoid the needles as well as kick Kin backwards. However, he soon realized that this had all been part of the duo's plan. Kin launched a bombardment of needles a few inches away from his shoulder. Now, if he was to follow his intended path of backward motion, he would most likely end up impaling his feet on the upright needles. Kicking Kin back with both of his feet, Sasuke stumbled up, the precision needed to stand up while not being stabbed being incredibly precise. He awkwardly leapt back, attempting to vault over the hall of senbon with dwindling success.
Dosu rushed forward, jumping onto Kins back before springing toward Sasuke. The Uchiha's stilted jump had left him defenseless in the air, a fact which Dosu was quick to take advantage off. He smashed his melody gauntlet into Sasuke's chest, sending a jolt of discharging sound waves through his system as well as forcefully slamming him down. Spasms ran through Sasuke's body as he landed in the pile of senbon. Sharp strings of pain shot up through his body with the needles embedding themselves into his back and legs. Even when Sasuke had realized he was falling into the senbon pit, he hadn't expected it to hurt this bad. The residual jitters of sound that Dosu had hit him with pulsated through his body, each one amplifying the pain more and more.
That must've been it. Dosu had used the vibrations of his soundwaves to overload Sasuke's nerves and make them hyper-sensitive. This turned what would have been at best a slight sting due to adrenaline into a burning sensation that ran up the entirety of his body. His sharingan flickered in the light, refocusing itself on his targets despite his injury. Kin was now running forward, a triplet of needles weaved through her knuckles. Sasuke moved quickly, launching himself up to his feet despite the pain. Luckily, there was no longer any fear of stepping on a needle now that practically all of them were stuck into him. In this fact lay his newest strategy. With sharp motion, Sasuke brought his leg up high for a kick. Kin instinctively swerved out of the way, only to realize too late that this had been what he had intended her to do. Sasuke kicked sideways, slamming the needles stuck to his leg into Kin's arm.
She grunted in pain, only to swiftly eat a second strike from Sasuke as he used his other leg to kick into her abdomen. The pricking of the needles, even though it was minor, threw Kin's balance way off and with her balance decimated, she was left open for Sasuke's final attack. He threw his whole body forward back-first, much like you'd expect out of a hedgehog. His back collided with her front, depositing the last of the senbon in her like a pin cushion. Kin at least had the foresight to close her eyes, but that did very little in minimizing the collective sting that erupted through her body.
She landed on the ground, regaining autonomy quickly enough to just roll out of the way of Sasuke attempting to stomp her head in. Quickly getting back onto her feet, she crouched near Dosu, who quickly threw out a blast of sound. Now, this blast was limited in its range, but its purpose was as more of a deterrent than anything else. In this respect, it worked, because Sasuke immediately begun to back away from the two. He once again scanned over their forms, trying to memorize the way they fought into his head. Kin was quick and deadly precise, but didn't have much in the way of actually doing damage by herself. Dosu seemed to easily be the more dangerous and capable out of the two, but also seemed slightly skittish for reasons Sasuke couldn't figure out. Maybe it was the jutsu that had scared him, after all it was-
Wait. Where was Naruto's body?
Sakura stuck a hand over her mouth in an attempt to keep her heavy breathing in. She balanced her back against the rough wood of the trees, the rustling of Zaku's footsteps on the ground booming out just a little bit behind her. His own deep breathes echoed through the metal of his respirator, before slivering through the crevasse of his upper lip and fading into the cool night air. Sakura had managed to outmaneuver him early on, soon realizing that she had little hope of engaging properly in close quarters. Her face still occasionally twitched as a result impact of his sound cannon, which quickly sent a similar jolt of fear down here spine while she prayed that he wasn't observant enough to hear her blinking or the sound of her lips. She gently peeked out the corner of the tree trunk, hoping that the night would be enough to obscure her teal eyes from his view.
He wasn't even looking in her direction, thankfully. His posture was rigid, clearly frustrated he'd been forced into a game of cat and mouse instead of a knock-down, drag-out brawl. He awkwardly circled around on the spot, holding his arms out in hopes that he'd see a flicker of her somewhere.
"Hoot hoot!"
The sound of an owl in the treetops brought his attention upwards, the boy immediately firing a blast into the crowns of the forest. This made one thing clear: he was either incredibly trigger-happy, or he couldn't tell Sakura's voice from the sounds of a bird. She chose to believe the first one.
He gently stowed his aim, clapping the holes of his hands together a few times before resuming his perimeter search.
A recharge time? Sakura thought to herself.
She could use this. She grazed a finger over the ground, careful not to press down too hard and make a sound, before clutching a small stone in her hand. She tossed it to the floor of one of the other trees, the sound of its descent immediately being greeted with a blast from the boy. This was her que. She brandished her kunai and stood up, running forwards. Zaku turned on his heel at the sound of her footsteps, but it was too late.
"Hyah!"
Sakura plunged her knife into his shoulder and began ruthlessly stabbing it over and over. Specks of blood stained the Sound boy's tan top, spilling over with a bright enough red to match the characters on his shirt. She was swinging wildly, eyes locked shut in an attempt to block out the sight of the knife plunging into Zaku. His muffled screams echoed through his respirator, arms flailing confusedly as he attempted to get her off. He eventually managed to grip onto her hair, throwing her onto her back as he shakily tried to stand up. Sakura quickly rebounded, lurching forward but before she could even get back up to her feet properly, Zaku's sound shotgun burst into her face.
She flew back again, spine cracking against dirt. Flecks of mud flew up; the process being repeated over and over as Zaku began to aim more shots at the downed girl. Sakura didn't even have a chance to get up as waves of sound continued to blast into her body, each one rattling her down to her core. Grime from the ground began entangling itself with in her pink locks, each of Zaku's blasts pushing her further along the floor. Eventually, she found herself with her backed pressed against the reverse side of the hiding place she'd just used. She sat up against the front of the tree bark with her mind still racing, vision only just beginning to come back to her. The images in front of her melded together slightly, forcing the girl to squint to try and get a better picture.
There were a lot of thoughts that could've ran through her mind at this moment, but the one that was primarily lodged to the front of the pack (aside from "fuck, everything hurts") was why Zaku had apparently stopped his assault. It appeared to her that his first attacks had been fueled by adrenaline, a rush that overruled the stab wounds in his shoulder. Now, with his left arm beginning to go numb from the blood loss, he realized he had more important things to worry about than Sakura. He rolled his shoulder, attempting to get something in the way of motion going. Unfortunately, only his wrist and hand seemed to be responding right now.
A few seconds, Zaku looked up at Sakura with absolutely lethal intent in his eyes. The sound of heavy breathing rang out of the respirator, amplifying the mania in his eyes tenfold. He slowly raised his non-stabbed arm to Sakura, lining his hand up directly with her head. The whirring bundle of noise began to vibrate from his hollow hands, indicating that in mere seconds, Sakura face could be caved in by an unrelenting wave of sound.
BANG!
Out of nowhere, Naruto leapt forward from the trees, slamming his fist into the back of Zaku's head. The same eyes that had just been unhinged with mania suddenly became sealed with a fading laziness that came when you had just been punched in the back of the head by someone who hit hard.
Naruto? Sakura thought to herself, vision still so shaken by Zaku's battery that she could only make out an orange blob.
Wait, no…Naruto's?
Make that multiple orange blobs.
A mob of shadow clones descended upon Zaku like a shark in the water, stomping a punching at his already downed form with seemingly no regard for whether or not they would actually hurt him.
"Get in there!"
"Beat him up!"
"Get his ass!"
The mob shouted, while a lone Naruto scurried away over to Sakura.
"You okay?'" He asked, offering her a hand.
Sakura nodded, gripping onto it with enough shakiness that she nearly pulled Naruto down with her. She managed to get to her feat, breaths still rigged from the punishment she'd taken before. The sound waves began to emit again, bursting through the confines of the shadow clone crowd like rays of light. Zaku was clearly able to recover, but he had a hell of a way to go to escape the mob considering how many shadow clones were surrounding him.
"What's this guy's deal?" The real one asked.
"He can shoot sound and stuff like that. He needs his hands to do it though." Sakura said, stretching her arms out to try and get her body back into form.
She reached into her tool pouch, retrieving a small white ball with a smooth surface.
"Do you know what this is?"
"Oh yeah! Glue bomb, classic!" Naruto nodded, recalling some of the pranks he'd pulled with that very item.
"Get it between his hands. This is industrial-strength, and his left shoulders already fucked. He can't do anything with his hands stuck together"
"Can you move alright?" Naruto asked.
This time it was Sakura's turn to nod.
"Okay then, keep it on 'ya and pass it to me when I'm behind him." Naruto said.
The pair quickly returned their attention to Zaku, who had just about gotten finished with the last of the shadow clones. He had not disposed of them all without injury though, Sakura noting a distinct limp in his left leg.
Naruto clapped his hands together in a shadow clone jutsu, a large number of clones popping into existence as he did so. The real one quickly fell back into their lines, masking his true identity to even Sakura.
"Let's go!" The clones cried, the large mob beginning to dash forward.
Sakura trailed along beside them, keeping the glue bomb tucked tightly into her grip. Zaku immediately began to fire sound bursts forward but this strategy that had worked so well prior quickly revealed itself to be incompatible with the battle's current climate. His blasts had worked very well when he had the privilege of being able to individually target people, but thanks to the wave of clones that was descending upon him, this was no longer an option. Each blast would simply send the clone that hit it back into the body of another clone, which barley slowed either down and unlike most people who fought Naruto's shadow clones, he wasn't even able to effectively wean the numbers down either. The sound bursts he was firing had been made so wide and unfocused in the interest of crowd control, that they lacked enough punch to effectively disperse the clones. If Zaku wanted to cull the numbers advantage, he'd have to switch to the more hard-hitting shots he'd used on Sakura, but then he wouldn't be able to focus on enough of the ninjas to keep them at bay before they reached him. What he really needed was a new strategy…
SLING!
The aura of his sound waves suddenly became hyper-focused, imbuing them with a new found sharpness. Their status as projectiles suddenly transformed into something that was closer to a pair of massively long-range swords, Zaku waving his arms around as he sliced through the army of clones with ease. Sakura rolled out of the way, only barely managing to doge out of the way of the sound length. A small tuff of her pink hair fluttered down to the ground, intwining between the grass while she dashed forward. The clones began to spread around in an attempt to dampen the effectiveness of Zaku's ultra-fine blades. Now he had to aim more precisely, giving the clones more opportunity to dodge out of the way when he sliced at them. It didn't help that his control of the blades was not great with the weapons continually losing their sharpness and thus, effectiveness. This forced him to continually reload to try and keep his distance from the stampeding mob of Narutos.
The distance between the two forces began to shorten by the second, Zaku flailing around in an attempt to hit any target he could. One of them brandished a fuma shuriken, unwinding it's blades out before throwing it forward. There was little threat in Zaku's eyes as it sailed through the air. Even with its glimmering serration, the clones aim had been so bad that there was no way it hit Zaku unless a massive gust of wind blew in from the east. It pathetically landed by his feet, his attention staying fixated on Sakura. The girl's presence had been further exposed now that the clone's numbers had dwindled down somewhat. He thrashed his sonic blades at her, forcing her to slickly slither around them if she wished to remain anatomically intact. Despite generally having recovered, she was still clearly slowed thanks to his earlier barrage of sound and was not moving at one hundred percent.
Sakura frantically dodged through his sound, until the sharp whirring of the swords dwindled. This indicated to her that he was about to reload, meaning she had a chance to respond with an attack. Now, if you looked at the battlefield with her known skillset in mind, it didn't look like she could do much except throw something at him that he'd be able to blast away in time but this was untrue. Afterall, she'd picked up a few things during her chunin exam training…
Her hands weaved between each other, before she stuffed them on the ground.
"Earth release: pebble hail!"
Her chakra coursed through the ground, creating small chasms in the soil which were quickly utilized by the rising stone below. A barrage of rocks, not particularly big but incredibly fast, shot forward at Zaku, clumps of dirt peeling off them as they raced through the air. If they were aimed at his chest or arms, they probably wouldn't do much more than sting and bruise if she was lucky, but they weren't aimed at those parts. They were aimed at his hurt leg that Sakura had noticed earlier.
The stones smashed into his knee, hard enough to nearly send Zaku down to one leg. A swell of pride coursed through Sakura as one of the only two earth release techniques she'd managed to learn had been effective. Zaku gripped his leg to try and stabilize it, before refocusing his aim at Sakura. There was a small one-second stretch where the girl thought he may slice her head clean off with his sound blades, but the rustling of the treetops behind him quickly drew his attention. Naruto leapt out from the leafy-abyss; hands held out in a catching position.
"Now, Sakura!" He called.
Sakura tossed the glue-bomb upwards, it's smooth white finish sailing through the air with intense rotation. It glided forward, a perfect shot that seemed deadest for Naruto's hands. However, Zaku was not about to let this happen, eyes widening in fright as he caught a glimpse of the glue-bomb. He aimed at Naruto, firing a large blast of sound that rocketed towards the boy at the same pace as the ball. Even if the Uzumaki got his hands on the item, he'd be blasted to hell and back before he could get even a slither of a chance to use it. The twin entities raced towards his form, an expression of panic breaking out onto his face as he realized that there was no way he was getting out of this.
Except there was, and there always had been.
Naruto did not grab the glue-bomb, instead he spiked it down below to Zaku. The sound blast crashed into his chest, but it wasn't really his chest to begin with. It was a clone's. Zaku's eyes became filled with confusion as the glue-bomb sailed down in his direction, the only possibility in his mind being that they were attempting to trick him into catching it. Then a burst of smoke blew up from his side, the real Naruto leaping forward from the "shuriken" that had landed around his feet. Zaku had so little time to react to this, that he had no way of curbing his instinctual reload procedure. His hands mashed together quickly, but not quick enough as Naruto took hold of the glue ball and slammed it into the middle of his palms. A tacky explosion of white coursed over his hands, setting and sealing them together before he could even hope to tear them apart.
Naruto leapt towards his helpless opponent, Zaku only managing to hold up his stuck mass of hand in a failed attempt to block when Naruto's elbow smashed into his head.
BAM!
This was around the same time that Sakura decked him in the back of his skull. Considering he was stationary, both of these blows caught him flush, dropping him to the ground.
After a few seconds, it became clear that Zaku was not getting up anytime soon. Small pants of previously-held breath came from both Sakura and Naruto, before the blonde boy spoke up, a serious look in his eye.
"Sasuke's fighting the other two, we've gotta go help him."
Sakura nodded, the two quickly making their move away from Zaku's body. Little did they know, that the whole time, they had been watched from the treetops. Beady, serpentine eyes peered down at the pair, a small smile gracing the person's features as they observed them.
It seems as if I underestimated them. How unfortunate.
Sasuke's jagged breaths crackled up from his throat, the Uchiha boy clearly exhausted from the against fight the duo of sound ninja. Fighting either one by themselves would've been difficult enough, especially Dosu. For him to try and take the two of them on by himself was only an attempt to hold them off for the moment. Blood streaked down his shirt and shorts, courtesy from the senbon that had been stuck into him. Even with the power of the sharingan, Kins aim had been good enough to tag him multiple times over. Even though needles weren't particularly powerful as a weapon by themselves, Sasuke was seriously starting to think about how many more he could take before the sheer culmination of their wounds became a concern.
What he was trying to do now was escape from the two's attention, but this seemed to be an impossibility. Kin's unflinching eyes were razer-focused onto him, ready to swiftly strike with a senbon barrage if he were to step even an inch out of line. He'd succeeded in making sure he kept them at a distance, but even that advantage was beginning to slip with the depletion of his shuriken and kunai. He cast a clone jutsu, visual copies of himself beginning to appear out of nowhere. They circled around his area, attempting to create enough of a distraction let Sasuke blend in for the moment. Dosu simply scoffed in response, shooting a bolt of soundwaves forward. At first, Sasuke thought this was a regular attack and he and his clones attempted do doge accordingly.
However, in reality, the "attack" was harmless. Its wobbling sound served a different purpose, that being the illumination of illusion. A regular clone jutsu was not solid, and therefor sound didn't interact with it in the same way it would a normal human. The outlines of the clone's bodies began to become wavy and unfocused when the waves hit them, while Sasuke stayed fixed and stable. Dosu sprinted forwards, readying his melody arm as he approached Sasuke.
"Wait, Dosu!" Kin shouted.
Her words immediately made the perception of Dosu's rush-down switch from strategic to hasty, a fact which only worsened as he shouted back.
"We don't have much time Kin! He'll be angry!"
Sasuke quickly capitalized, embers beginning to flicker out of his mouth before finally, a massive ball of flame was released. It hurtled towards Dosu, scorching the ground underneath it with it's crackling heat. Now, Sasuke had expected this to serve as more of a deterrent or a distraction than anything else, and had already begun planning for his next move in the inevitable even that Dosu countered the fireball with his sound. This did not happen.
The freight train-like momentum of Dosu's charge completely halted, the boy standing up straight with a far away look in his eye. The sizzling orange of the fire reflected through his pupils, his mental state switching from focused and antsy to lost and frightened. The fireball continued to hurtle towards him, yet it did nothing to get him to budge even an inch. All he did was raise his hand up to cover his exposed eye.
A boy with short brown hair throws his hands up, screaming in pain. His room is engulfed in flames, the smoldering smell of fire and smoke clogging up his throat. He screams out for parents who had abandoned him at the first sign of danger, the scent of his dads recent drinking binge mixing with the flames to create an aroma most vile. Strange pulsating waves of energy radiate from one of his arms, while the other is covering over his left eye. The crackling of the inferno is intense. It hurts his ears and eyes. The sensations are too much.
He cannot see anything. There is no one to help him.
"Dosu!" Kin screamed, pushing the boy out of the path of the fireball.
Not even when they slammed against the ground did he snap back to life. Instead, he continued to hold his hand up against his eye, muttering something incoherent to himself. Kin tried to shake him lucid, but Dosu refused to respond. His mind was so out of it that he didn't even register anything in front of him. As far as she was concerned, he may as well have been on a different planet, which would've been okay had Sasuke Uchiha not been charging towards them on this one at this very second. She reached into her pocket, only to find her senbon completely depleted. This left her with only one choice. If only as a time-buying measure, Kin put her hands through the seals and pointed them forward. Soon after, Sasuke's whole word became black.
It took his eyes a few seconds to adjust, the echoey eternity of darkness completely overtaking his view. Small blurs of things around him would appear into existence with a slight hum, but they would quickly disappear as quickly as they came. Each step across the ground would bring forth a splatter of vision to the ground below, but the darkness would quickly swallow it up again. He quickly identified it as a genjutsu. Normally, in a situation such as this, you would start to become very frightened. Why wouldn't you, the rules of the word had suddenly ceased to exist, becoming forfeit to some random genin. While he took this into account, Sasuke couldn't help but smile. He'd finally get a chance to use this against something more than Kakashi's simple illusions in training. With a deep breath he activated his sharingan ability, the same one he'd used when he had awakened it against Haku.
It was genjutsu nullification.
The sharingan flickered in the black abyss, before igniting with a strong red glow. This proved infectious, running over the walls and illuminating the darkness of the genjutsu realm, while the echoy atmosphere was dropped in favor of a tight, constrained soundscape. He immediately spotted Kin crouching in front of him, trying to yell Dosu awake. The constrained walls of the genjutsu shattered around him, a shocked expression gracing Kin's features as she realized what had happened. She couldn't act on this shock though, Sasuke already running over to her before she had time to snap out of it. She shakily attempted to dodge out of the way, but it was already too late at that point. Sasuke's foot slammed into her face, sending her to the ground. This was swiftly followed by the boy leaping up into the air and stomping down on her temple, forcibly switching the lightbulb in her mind off.
He quickly crouched down to her body, rustling through her pockets before snatching the scroll. It was conveniently of the heaven variety, meaning this fight had at least been worth something. He still had no idea what the sound nin had wanted with him though, especially since they had signaled out both him and Naruto while completely discarding Sakura. They hadn't even gone after their scroll while Naruto was downed, so clearly their intentions had lay elsewhere. Could they have possibly been after the-
"Sasuke! We're coming!" Naruto announced, bursting from the bushes with a mob of clones as well as Sakura marching behind him.
The pair had expected to find Sasuke on the brink of death, barely being able to hold off the devious sound ninja. Instead, in their eyes, it looked as if Sasuke had somehow managed to beat both of them by himself.
"Woah! You kicked both their asses! How'd you do that?!" Naruto exclaimed, clearly surprised.
Sasuke shrugged, making sure to hold the scroll up when doing so so his teammates could see just how well he'd fought them. He could point out that they were beating the ever-loving shit out of him, and that he'd only really managed to "beat" them because one had mentally broken down and he'd surprised the other, but that would be kind of a mouthful, so instead he shortened it down to-
"Skill. They weren't even that hard to beat honestly." He lied.
Sakura quickly strode up to him, a stern look on her face. Unlike Naruto, the tension in her posture hadn't changed, probably on account of the fact she was smart enough to realize Sasuke was bullshitting. Afterall, he'd just said that his opponents weren't that hard to beat when he was covered in so many needle wounds that he resembled a connect the dots coloring page. Sakura gripped onto his collar, yanking it down to get a better look at his neck and abdomen. Shallow but plentiful wounds ran down it, obviously having been pierced by senbon.
"We need to get someplace safe and bandage you up. You'll start slowing down soon if we don't." She ordered.
Sasuke was taken aback by her forcefulness, expecting her directions to be significantly less stern then they ended up being. Nevertheless, he nodded, preparing to direct the three of them out of this place before Naruto cut them off.
"Hey, Dosu's still awake!" He shouted.
Sasuke turned around quickly, hoping that Naruto was not saying Dosu had snapped out of his trance. Luckily, the sound nin was still cowering over himself, clutching his exposed eye while hushes of murmured mania escaped from his lips. It was utterly incoherent, but Sasuke didn't want to take the chance of leaving him conscious for now. If they did, there was a good chance Dosu ended up tailing them whenever they went next, and he was in no rush to fight any of them again. He put his hand out to Sakura while holding up "shush" motion to Naruto.
"You got a kunai?" He whispered.
"Yeah." She replied, digging into her pouch and retrieving the small knife.
She handed it over to him, Sasuke bracing it in a battle position as he tiptoed over to Dosu. The bandaged boy still seemed out of it, but he was not willing to lower his guard for even second in case he was faking it. Well, that was what he wanted to think, but Dosu's dismal display was so creepy that he couldn't help but be a little put-off. The sound-boys' murmurs would twist into sobs at lighting speed, before switch right back to the utterly incomprehensible chatter that he had been speaking before. His hand was clutching his eye so hard, Sasuke thought for a second he might have been trying to dig it out of his skull. Something about the fire had really set him off…
He gently loomed over his foe, attempting to quell the nerves that came with witnessing Dosu's erratic behavior. A simple kick to the head would probably knock him out clean, but if Dosu were to suddenly become lucid, he'd have to use the knife. For now, though, all he had to do was line up the shot. He crouched forward, posture lurching as he came closer to Dosu's face.
Then Dosu took his hand off his eye.
"Boo."
Sasuke lunged for his throat but he was too slow. A shield of soundwave exploded from the melody arm, locking the kunai in place as if it were a magnet trying to be pushed towards another magnet. Dosu clenched his fist, causing the soundwaves to implode in on themselves and send Sasuke flying forwards. The Uchiha rolled across the ground tumbling over himself countless times before he finally managed to get a foothold in the turf. He looked up, weaving the signs for a phoenix flower jutsu, with his eyes staying locked upon Dosu. Just as he was about to release it though, his target was forcibly shifted away as Dosu grabbed Kins body and held it up as a shield. A clean hit on the girl like he was positioned for would mean a barbaric trial by fire that would end with her no more than a flaming corpse. Thus, Sasuke hesitated, attempting to find a better angle to shoot from but by the time he did, Dosu had already began sprinting towards the rest of Team 7.
He had two minutes.
"Oh shit, get him!" Naruto screamed, rallying the idle clones into battle.
Dosu was one step ahead though. He weaved hand seals before slamming his palms down on the ground.
"Earth Release: geyser pathways!"
At first there was little in the way of actual concrete effect on the ground. A few spots crinkled up with slight cracks in them, sure, but the attack seemed to have been useless. At the very least, Naruto's clones weren't phased. That was, until roaring fountains of pure sound came tearing through the land, launching them way up into the air.
He must've used earth release to make paths in the ground and then vibrated his sound through it! Sasuke thought, rushing over to the group.
The real Naruto leapt forward, though his usual bombastic taijutsu was more reserved as he recalled the effect Dosu's arm had had on him when he'd been hit. Naruto threw a clean duo of punches which Dosu dodged. This duo was quickly turned into a quartet at the one remaining shadow clone joined the fight, leaping on Dosu's back and raining punches into the side of his head. He left just as quickly as he came though, Dosu implanting the soundwaves through his own body which not only reflected the blows of the real Naruto but also dispersed the clone into a puff of smoke.
Sakura threw a sharp streak of wire shot out at him, clearly attempting to take hold of his melody arm. He allowed the wire to wrap around his wrist, but before Sakura could even hope to capitalize, he reverberated his sound waves through it's material like an electric current. This jolt of sound shocked into Sakura's system, leaving her shaking as Dosu used his grip on the wire to swing her to the center of the clearing. Naruto bounced back at him no more than a few seconds later but once again, was unable to properly engage his foe in taijutsu. In the blink of an eye, Dosu had already body flickered next to him, gripping the Uzumaki by the head. Naruto flailed uselessly, while Dosu pushed his right hand through seals.
A sharp screaming sensation filled Naruto's ears, powerful enough in its sound that it felt like they were being pumped full of water. His whole body shook like he'd grabbed an electrical wire, a massive amount of sound coursing through it. Dosu swiftly shifted his focus to the approaching Sasuke before throwing Naruto at him like a baseball. The two collided, the same shaking that had overtaken Naruto's body being transferred to Sasuke as they flew forward into the center of the area where Sakura also lay. The three slowly got to their feet, remnant waves of sound still spasming through them.
Dosu looked over them, clearly nervous despite his control of the situation. He gently clutched his hands together, grip tight enough to white his knuckles as he muttered something.
"Please lord forgive me, I'm running out of time." He murmured, taking a small scroll out of his pocket.
The paper began to unfurl from its grip constraints seemingly by itself, fluttering up into the air. Dosu bit down against his own thumb, drawing blood that began magnetically streaking upwards across the page scroll. The crimson fluid dotted up the paper, which had started to circle around the top of the clearing. The laws of gravity had no bearing on the paper's ascent, as it created a large circular shape around the treetops. Stirring from their spots on the ground, Team 7 looked up at Dosu with a deep undercurrent of fear in their expressions. Due to his bite, the bandages around his face had torn, their rough paper material giving way to the smoothness of his teeth. While you couldn't make out much more than a few assorted incisors, it, when combined with the flecks of blood that was now seeping into the incisions of his bandages, made him look even more terrifying then he had prior.
"Cursed Summoning Art: Caging Serenade!" Dosu cried out, the scroll dispersing into a puff of smoke.
The genins eyes widened as they saw what he had just brought forth into the world.
On the slopes of the treetops sat a circle of…well, there weren't even words to describe them. They were vaguely humanoid in shape, but with bleached white skin, their facial features so mutilated and disjointed that no one who was being honest with themselves could consider these things human. Some had multiple eyes, some just had tight stretches of skin packed over where the eyes should be. Their limb anatomy was disgusting, ranging from having multiple arms to being limbless blobs that only had small nubs where clearly stunted finger and toes had sprouted from. It was a revolting sight, enough to intensely instill nausea in the observing genin.
"What the fuck are these things?" Naruto asked, voice quiet with disgust.
The sight of these creatures had apparently dulled his reasoning capabilities, because the question was useless. It wasn't as if Sasuke or Sakura could possibly know what these things were, they looked like something out of a novel or manga. The unease only got worse when the ones with working mouths started mumbling.
"where am i."
"my family."
"the lord."
"it hurts."
"how could he."
"i don't know where I am."
"help me."
Despite the numerous defects that separated them visually, each one spoke with exactly the same tone of voice. It was raspy and low, utterly brainless and only really being audible due to the sheer number of creatures that were speaking at once. Sakura couldn't stand the sight much longer, lurching over the ground while gagging. Naruto just looked to the side, eyes locked shut. It was because of this that Sasuke was the only one to notice what they were holding. Trumpets, symbols, flutes and harps. All instruments that made a lot of noise. His eyes flashed back to Dosu, who was sharply smiling through the gaps in his bandages. The erratic nervousness that had occasionally permeated through his posture seemed to have faded again, the whirring of his melody arm soothing him for the moment.
"I would like some sound please." He said.
BRRRIIIIIIIUIISFISIFFFFFFFF
The creatures began to play, smashing their instruments together with no regard for actual melody, just pure sound. Sasuke leapt up to try and cut Dosu off before his strategy could kick into action, but with the distance between them, this was no more than a pipe dream. The melody arm took control of the sonic melting pot, turning it into a massive blob of sharp sound waves. Sasuke was pushed to the ground, gravity beating him against the ground while a similar sensation overtook Naruto and Sakura. It felt like their ears were literally being torn apart, vibrations echoing through their skull and blurring their vision. They screamed out in pain, but this was only really severed to fuel the power of the sound dome.
Funnily, thanks to the control of Dosu's melody arm, anyone who walked past the clearing would hear, at most, a faint purring. Inside however, it sounded like the quasi-infinite generation of nails on a chalkboard. The sound ninja laughed manically to himself, as he frantically thrashed around with his arm. This directed the sound's direction, each toss of his hand rolling the writhing Team 7 around with it. He was having so much fun, that the time limit that had previously dominated his thoughts and actions was forgotten. The rush of inflicting pain had overtaken him, each second Team 7 spent in his grasp enriching his laughter with a newfound glee. He threw them up and threw them down, slamming them into the dirt and then rolling them through the own filth. It would start showing on their bodies soon, all he to do was-
FWOOSH!
There was no sound. Dosu's frantic conducting quickly went from deadly to useless in less than a second, the creatures dissolving into a puff of smoke. His eye alarmingly looked over the scene, ears popping as the screeching sound that had just ruled over the area gradually vanishing into the air. Had they decomposed? No, some of them were fresher, they would have all done so at once. Besides, it was obvious due to the smoke that they'd been dismissed through the summoning link, but that could only mean-
Brriiiiiiiing!
"Times up."
Dosu's blood ran cold when he heard the voice behind him.
Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura sat up, bodies still partly numb from the onslaught of noise. The Uzumaki stretched out his back, probably naturally being the most durable out of all of them.
"Are you guys alright?" He asked, twitching his facial features to try and get some feeling back into them.
Sakura nodded, while Sasuke stared past him.
"Who's that?" He said.
Naruto turned, find another boy walking over towards Dosu. He was dressed in a tan top, a thick purple belt wrapped snuggly around his waist and blue earrings that dangled through the mess of brown hair that ran down his back. He was not at all imposing, barely being taller than Dosu yet the boy was treating him like he was a giant. Dosu had begun shaking, fear clear in his eye and only growing as the other boy approached him. He was holding a small pocket watch in his hand, it's presence only causing the shaking to intensify the closer he got to Dosu.
"M-m-my lord. Why did you do that?! I had them in the p-palm of my hand!Just a few more seconds and I would've won, I know I would've!" Dosu cried, voice fluctuating between a whisper and a scream.
The boy smiled, not returning his hysteria in anyway.
"Dosu, I said you had thirty minutes and you were unable to capture them in that time limit." He said back calmly.
"But- "
WACK!
The boy struck Dosu hard enough to nearly break the bandages on his face with only the side of his palm. Dosu spiraled to the floor, cheek clearly stinging from the blow.
Yet he did not fight back.
Not even when the other boy grabbed him by the neck and pulled him back to his feet. He tucked Dosu into the crest of his chin, trapping the Sound boy in what looked like both a chokehold and an embrace. The taller boy rested his chin on Dosu's forehead, beady, slanted eyes staring down at him with a cruel gaze.
"Your performance today has been incredibly disappointing." He hissed venomously, all the while keeping the same smug grin on his face.
"I'm sorry my lord."
Dosu's voice was now locked at a murmur. There was clearly a conscious effort to keep it this way, considering the inflections in his voice threatened to break out into a scream every few seconds.
"You wasted my subjects, you wasted your jutsu, you wasted your teammates potential and, worst of all, you wasted your own potential." The boy whispered back harshly.
"But I- "Dosu tried to defend, voice breaking into a loud sob.
"Dosu."
He shut up immediately.
"How do you expect to join the four when you can't even handle a couple of genin?"
There was no reply.
"Exactly. I had such high, high hopes for you when I brought you in, but I can't help but feel you are failing to live up to them."
"I'm sorry." Dosu whispered back, tears beginning to stain his bandages.
"You should be. I want you to round up your Zaku and Kin and find another two scrolls. I'm sure you understand the potential consequences that would befall you if you are to disappoint me twice in one day, don't you?"
Dosu nodded hard enough to nearly dislocate his head from his shoulders.
"Good boy."
The other boy gently kissed Dosu on the forehead, before shoving him backwards with enough force to send him to the ground. His attention snapped onto Team 7, gaze that had previously been fixated on Dosu's soul now no longer even acknowledging his existence.
"Run along now, I have more important matters to attend to."
Dosu was stunned silent for a couple seconds, before hastily pushing himself onto his feet.
"Yes, my lord! Thank you, my lord!" He screamed, breaking of into a desperate sprint.
"Now, what to do with you." The brown-haired boy mused as he walked towards Team 7.
The genin had only just began to get full control of their bodies back and seeing the frankly bizarre interaction between Dosu and this guy had not made them feel assured in the slightest. All three were on-guard, brandishing weapons and tools as a way to try and deter the boy. However, it was clear from his cocky stride and self-assured smirk that it would take more than simple ninja weapons to curb his self-confidence.
"Who are you?" Sasuke yelled, not recognizing the squiggle symbol on the boy's forehead protector.
It definitely wasn't the same as the sound village though, which made his power over Dosu all the odder. Just who was this guy?
"That's a difficult question." The boy said with a grin, smiling deep enough to show the sharpness of his fang-like teeth.
"See, this boy's name was Shiore."
He waved his hand over his face to signify his statement.
"However, Sasuke Uchiha, you may know me better as- "
CRACK!
He lurched backward with animalistic flexibility. The three genins eyes widened as he seemingly shattered every bone in his spine by leaning back, body beginning to arch over like he'd just had his back bones turned into jello.
"What the hell?" Naruto mumbled, grimacing at the sight.
CRACK!
Then he pushed himself forward, cracking his bones back into place with visceral sound. He was now taller, although that may have been an understatement. He was disgustingly lanky, arms drooping of the joints of slim, anatomically-tortured shoulders. He was now significantly taller than any of the genin, easily being able to match them even if two of them were to climb on each other's shoulders. His hair faded from a moss brown to a deep black, the boy bringing his hand up to his face. He promptly ripped the skin off, reducing his former facial features into a moist lump of mush that he casually threw to the side. Now, the trio of genin could gaze upon his real face.
White skin.
Serpentine features.
Purple outlines.
"Orochimaru." He finished.
The chirping of the crickets became the dominant soundscape for a small stretch of a silence, not a single word echoing through the cold night air.
Then Sasuke turned to them, legitimate fear embedded into the very core of his eyes.
He said one thing.
"Run."