Eyo.
For once, well, not for once, but... Anyways, I'm editing this the night before for the first time in a while, which means I'm far less exhausted than I'd normally be.
Sooo... I have nothing else to say. Without further ado, CHAPTER COMMENCE!
Chapter 71: A Duel, Interrogation, and Plea for Aid.
The hollow tap of her shoe striking stone was the first thing to clue Sakura in that they'd arrived.
They stood in a wooded area not terribly far from the Leaf Village, barely a day out, and likely less if they needed to make it back in a hurry. Below her, the most miniscule of signs of a manmade bunker showed in the altered stone. Even if moss grew along it, it was clear to see that it'd been carved.
She held her hand up, pointed towards Tenzo, and then waved forward. The man nodded, placing his hands on the ground, and letting the roots that surrounded them begin to flow into the grounds around them.
She had, briefly, considered trying such a thing herself. With the help of some of her brand-new skills, and her curse marks evolved state, she might've been able to accomplish what Tenzo was currently doing in around ten minutes… a good five times longer than it'd take him.
But this was an actual combat scenario, well, theoretically it was, they didn't really know what they were going up against, but even still, that was enough for her to feel she should probably leave out any abilities she was only passably comfortable with using. She could wait and use her Wood Style later. For now, she needed to focus on what she was here for: leadership skills.
That meant relying on her teammates and knowing when to trust those more skilled than her to do their jobs.
Tenzo retracted the roots, pulled them back out of the ground, and let them recede into his sleeves. He closed his eyes for a moment, likely collecting the information they'd gathered.
"It's definitely one of Orochimaru's bases," He confirmed. "But I'm not getting any movement. If there is anyone, and we have reason to believe there is, then they're hiding a bit further down."
She nodded, standing up and walking towards the entrance.
It looked… normal.
Which was the first sign that something was probably wrong.
She leaned down and grabbed a rock off of the ground by her right foot. She juggled it for a brief moment, thinking about where she'd be aiming. When she found a spot she thought looked suitably suspicious, she hurled the thing as hard as she could.
It hit, a panel on the floor moved, and instantly, a poisonous gas erupted out from the wall.
"Trap!" She yelled, waving the remainder of her unit back as she herself took cover behind another rock.
The poison itself seemed to be a rather common type for Orochimaru. Tsunade had sent them here with multiple antidotes, each for one of the snake Sannin's favorite blends. Even still, none of them were hit by the gases, and when they finally faded, Sakura stood once more, letting out the breath she'd been holding, lest she inhale some of… whatever that was.
"Well," Anko breathed out as well. "Guess that answers our question of 'is anyone here?'."
"Yeah." She responded absentmindedly.
She stepped towards the stone stairs, which only descended ten or so feet under the earth, and saw that a door hung at the back. That would be their way in… if they were more foolish.
"Tenzo, can you give us a tunnel in?" She turned to the man himself.
He nodded.
"Understood."
/-/
By the time they broke into the base, quite literally bashing down a wall somewhere inside, about thirty minutes had passed.
Sakura wondered, somewhat nervously, if anyone had actually heard them come in.
Probably not. Her mind had supplied. We made no real noise past the immediate area. If anyone were around to hear that… well, they were going to hear us anyways.
They stepped inside slowly, making their way further into the base as they moved cautiously. It was a slow-going process, watching corners for traps or guards.
They found none of either for a good twenty minutes, and it was, funnily enough, the sound of footsteps that clued them into the fact that they weren't alone.
She held a hand up and turned her hand back and forth. Honestly, she'd picked up the majority of these signs from watching Zabuza lead them to the Sound Village. He'd definitely had the vibe of someone who'd led a unit hundreds of times. His was an effortless style, quiet, clean, and effective.
Even when shit had hit the metaphorical fan, he'd led them out through a usage of sound strategy and execution. What'd happened to him… she still felt some small bit of guilt for it even then, despite knowing, deep down, that it hadn't been her fault at all.
Even still, examining her own style, she found herself… lacking. She was slow, ineffective. Though, to be fair, like Tsunade had said, that was the whole point.
Maybe I could send in Anko to capture whoever this is? She wondered, weighing the idea in her head.
She decided she'd do it, waving the woman forward, and giving a pretty standard command she'd seen Zabuza give to Haku.
Anko's eyes narrowed, and she gave a silent sigh, but otherwise, she acquiesced, pushing up, and running near silently towards the footsteps.
There was a sound of shock, female if her ears were to be believed, a quick hush, and the sound of the struggle ceasing.
Anko arrived a few seconds later, a red-headed girl over her shoulder.
"Just so you know, Sakura," Anko set the girl down in front of her, a cloth covering her mouth to keep her from screaming as her eyes flicked to each of them, clearly panicked. "That order you gave was for a silent kill, not a silent capture."
She blanched, looking down at the girl below her and gulping down on at the exact moment she did as well.
"My… my bad."
"No worries, I got your meaning." She tapped the girl on the forehead. "So, what we doing with this one?"
She considered that for a moment, before deciding to keep things simple.
"Let's get information first and foremost." She took out a kunai, pointing it at the girls throat. It was an empty threat, but she didn't know that. "You'll stay quiet, I assume?"
The red head nodded rather frantically.
"Good."
She pulled down the gag and flinched slightly as the girl below her let out a titanic breath, struggling to stay still as the rest of them crowded around her.
To Sakura's surprise, she found a small bit of recognition in the back of her head. She knew this girl.
She couldn't quite place her name though…
Starts with a T… Tai…
"Tayuya?" She spoke randomly.
The girl below her considered Sakura's face more seriously as well, nodding as she took another breath.
"Yeah."
This was…
"You kidnapped me!" She pointed suddenly, remembering the events that'd happened over three years ago now. "You broke into my house, placed a Genjutsu on my family, and stole me and Sasuke away from the village!"
Tayuya gave a small, frightened laugh.
"Uh… my bad?"
She glared.
"S-sorry?"
"Just tell us what you guys are doing here."
Tayuya nodded, breathing out rather heavily to try and calm herself down.
"Well… the Sound Village was destroyed by those bastards from the Akatsuki. Me and Kidomaru are the only survivors from the Sound Five… Sakon, Ukon, Jirobo and Kimimaro were all killed in the attack. I didn't really like them that much, so it didn't matter to me, but regardless, only about 10% of Orochimaru's army lived to tell the tale, mostly the weak ones who weren't sent to defend the base initially. Those of us who survived… we didn't have much hope of moving on. We either scattered or tried to pick up the pieces, what little was left, at least."
"Rant less, get to the point." One of her ninjas spoke annoyedly.
Tayuya flinched, but nodded.
"Problems really came in when a few of the test subjects Orochimaru had locked up broke free, and without him as a deterrent… well, they ran wild. Took about half of the rest of us with them. We fought them down to the last few of em', but those final couple are pretty damn strong. We came to a truce after realizing we'd just end up killing each other. Then, we relocated here. One of those experiments is our…" Tayuya paused, visibly gathering herself. "Leader."
"You don't sound thrilled about that." Anko noted.
"Yeah, I'm not." Tayuya grimaced. "Guys a little shit. He's my age too, which somehow makes the garbage I have to put up with even more annoying. Still, strength rules around here, and it's hard to deny he's strong. Hard as fuck to kill, too."
Sakura saw a way forward there.
"Can you take us to him?"
"What, peacefully?" Tayuya seemed confused. "Or like a 'you're being threatened' kind of thing?"
Sakura gave a '50/50' sign with her hand.
"Eh, fuck it." Tayuya seemed to decide. "If you manage to kill him, I'll honestly thank you anyways."
/-/
Sakura had sort of expected the new leader to be…
Intimidating in any way, really.
He was sat in a rather odd makeshift throne, which seemed to have been assembled out of pipes and odd bits of metal he'd found lying around. Hardly very kingly, but the idea was there, she supposed. He was dressed in a purple sleeveless shirt and had hair as white as the full moon. A sword hung at his waist, though it wasn't a particularly complicated one. A simple katana, the likes of which you could've found in any village across the continent.
"Yo, Tay! How you doing?" The white-haired teen gave an excited wave, despite the fact that at least 10 figures he'd never seen followed along behind his ally. "I talked with old four arms earlier, and - Oh! I see you've brought friends."
"Yeah, wasn't exactly my intention." Tayuya leaned to the right, showing off the fact that they were holding her at knife point. "Introduce yourself so I don't die, please?"
"Eh…" The boy seemed to think about that one for a second. "I don't know… do I want to do that…"
Tayuya hissed, taking a deep breath.
"This is why I'm cool with you killing him." She spoke to Sakura without shame.
"Hey! That's awfully rude, Tay! I thought we'd really bonded these last few months, nay, years we've spent together!" The teen launched himself out of his throne, landing just in front of them and holding his hands up as at least four ninja pointed their kunai at him. "Whoa, whoa! Calm down! We're all friends here, right?"
"Uh…" Anko tilted her head. "No?"
"Oh…" The guy seemed a bit perturbed by that. "Okay, uh… I don't really wanna' be enemies… so…"
"You could surrender?" One of the Leaf Ninja they'd brought along offered up.
"I don't really wanna' do that either though…"
"…Tough shit?" Anko spoke confusedly.
"Hm." The man spoke, listing back and forth as he, apparently unthreatened by the many blades pointed at him, walked back towards his 'throne'. "Well, that's sort of a problem… I don't really want to surrender, but if you're not willing to give me a choice… then how about I extend a challenge to you all?"
Sakura tensed, expecting some form of trickery as she took a battle-ready stance. When it was clear the man wouldn't be attacking them, she didn't exactly… untense… but she did eye him a bit warily.
"I didn't mean like… attacking you." The white-haired boy gave a small laugh at their expense. "I meant I'd duel one of your representatives on my own, y'know, one on one, like how they used to do it back in the day!"
Their little gang looked between one another, shrugging, before Sakura looked back towards him with a question.
"And why should we do that, when we could just beat you with the ten of us?"
He seemed to stop and consider that for a moment.
Tayuya groaned horrendously.
"It'd be cool?"
"That's not a good enough reason." Anko spoke, taking a step forward and posturing aggressively. "I think we'll do this our way, tha-"
"Wait."
The others turned to her, but she ignored their glancing looks. Instead, she walked forward, taking five or six steps and coming to a stop in the middle of the 'throne room'.
"I'll do it."
Several of her team members gave her odd looks, but none seemed overly concerned.
Well, except for Anko of course, though that wasn't exactly a surprise.
"Why?"
"Because if we do it his way, he can't complain when he loses." She turned away from her mentor, and towards the boy still sat atop his flimsy throne. "You promise you'll cede to us if I win?"
His eyebrows rose.
"I mean… if you think a promise from me is worth anything, then sure, I promise."
She sighed.
"I suppose that's the best I'm getting."
She removed her trench coat, unsummoning it into a scroll on her belt. She flexed slightly, feeling her muscles respond to her commands. She was in good shape, more than fit to take on some random teen experiment.
After all, she was a random teen experiment herself.
She let her curse mark loose as the white-haired boy walked down to meet her, shooting her a cocky grin as he bounced on the tips of his toes.
"So… you used to be one of Orochimaru's guys, too?"
"No." She spoke firmly as her skin darkened to a grayish purple. "I've nothing to do with him."
"Funny." The boy gave a tiny laugh. "Your power just looks an awful lot like Tay's over there."
He gestured with his thumb to where the red-head was standing, looking worried, but not overly so as she hid in the corner. Well, hid was a strong word, she wasn't exactly invisible, but it was clear she was hoping they'd forget about her so she could be left well alone.
Sakura got that feeling, but at the same time, she felt a bit vindictive about this particular girl's involvement in her life.
She kidnapped me; she can afford to suffer uncomfortably for a few minutes.
Honestly, Sakura was pretty sure she was being fair, there.
She watched as her opponent almost mirrored her actions, letting his muscles relax as he stretched them. Suddenly, as if in a trick mirror, his arms both bulged to obscene degrees, as if they'd belonged to a man twice his size.
Upon seeing her staring, the smirk on his face only grew more devilish.
"Like what you see?"
She refused to give that comment anything other than it deserved, which was an amused snort.
"Can't say I do, I'm afraid." She cracked her knuckles, and allowed her hand-like wings to grow from her backside.
That seemed to only entertain her quarry further.
"A'ight." He spoke, sitting still and finally and drawing a weapon, his simple katana, from off of his waist. "It's an old custom in the Mist to give your name to someone you intend to defeat. The challenger always starts."
He cleared his throat, before bowing in a showy fashion.
"Suigetsu Hozuki, at your service."
She nodded, giving a small curtsy for the fun of it.
"Sakura Haruno."
Suigetsu laughed quietly.
"That'll do."
And he charged into her.
She ducked underneath his opening stab, immediately probing with one of her wings to see how he would counter that. In response, he dove over it, shearing the flesh with his sword as he did. She hissed in pain, but allowed him to roll to a stop a way's away. He'd struck the first blow of the match.
She paced right, allowing her wing to heal with some of her evolved stage's natural regeneration. If Suigetsu thought the fact that she was healing rapidly was odd, or was at all worried about it, he didn't show it in his expression. Instead, he simply took a deep breath, before blitzing forward again.
His sword made contact along the edge of a kunai she drew from her pouch. She deflected his first few blows, relying more on instinct than anything else, but took a strike along her left shoulder when he feinted right. Before she could capitalize on the small opening he'd left, he stabbed his sword into the ground, and used it as a point to vault from, kicking her in the stomach and sending her flying back. As she landed, he drew his sword back out, and winked at her.
She could only groan as she stood back up.
He's good. She realized with no real surprise. Well, I guess he'd have to be to cow this place.
She took the offensive this time, setting the pace before he could. She juked into his guard and punched, holding back a little so as not to collapse his ribcage.
Instead of sending him launching back, his entire stomach exploded outwards. She initially feared she'd killed him instantly, underestimating her strength, but a second glance revealed the offshoot not to be blood, but…
Water?
Suigetsu didn't waste her moment of confusion. Instead, he stabbed into her, his sword going straight through her right side, and coming out the other end.
Pain spiraled through her, and her only recompense was that she could still blow away the boy's head, even if he were made of liquid. She punched him in the face as she flung herself backwards and off of his sword, panting as she landed a way's away.
Suigetsu, to his credit, didn't look all that bothered as the water that made up his body reformed.
"Got anything else, little missy?" He asked cockily, and she wanted nothing more than to kill the bastard right then and there.
She pounded her fist into the stone floor below her, sending cracks spiraling out over the entire room. It was an action born of both anger and a plan, moreso the latter than the former, for once. The blow was enough for Suigetsu to lose his balance for a moment, but that wasn't what she'd been trying for, at least not entirely.
She'd needed access to the dirt below.
She slapped both of her hands down onto the ground, and focused hard. She could feel the way Suigetsu hesitated for only half a moment, before dashing for her, likely wanting to cut off whatever she was about to unleash.
Which meant she needed to finish this before he could.
She felt her twin natures, water, and earth, fill her body. On her right side, she let the tides loose, allowing them to flow freely, and on the left grew an island from that ocean. The two seemed to wage war within her, but they gave way, eventually, to new life.
She slammed her hands together, and interlaced her curled fingers, making the sign 'snake' just as Suigetsu's foot struck the stone in front of her.
"Wood Style…"
"Wait, wha-!?"
She channeled almost all of her chakra into her next Jutsu, banking on both the surprise, and the power to end it there.
"Nativity of a Sea of Trees!"
Suigetsu couldn't stop himself in time. The momentum carrying him forward was more than enough to, at the very least, root him in place as he tried to back away. He managed to slice down on Sakura's chest as he jumped back, scoring a fairly deep cut down her front, but even so, it wasn't enough to take her out of the fight.
And at the end of the day, this was a battle to surrender.
Life flowed from the cracks below her, taking the form of mid-sized roots and trees as they erupted outwards, wrapping Suigetsu up in their limbs. They tangled and tied, tripping him, and caused him to fall to the floor. He swore as he cut at a few, but it wasn't enough. More rose up, taking his arms and legs and binding them as well.
Leaves began to grow on the tips of the branches, even as Suigetsu's struggles grew more and more sluggish. Her wood style gradually drained away his chakra, and though she didn't yet possess the ability to steal away that chakra for herself (she hadn't yet figured out how to incorporate others chakra into her own pool), that didn't mean Suigetsu knew that.
She stepped over to him, making sure to take her time and make her footsteps echo on the cracked stone. He couldn't see her, tied to the ground as he was, but at the very least, she'd let him hear her.
When she finally made it to his side, she kneeled, gazed confidently down at him, and made sure to give off an air of superiority.
She was going to milk her victory over this cocky bastard as much as she could.
"Surrender." She spoke, tightening her fist, and, by extension, the roots connected to her chakra, causing Suigetsu, made of water as he was, to flinch. "Or I'll drain you dry."
She had had a feeling her Wood Style would be effective against Suigetsu, and that prediction had proven correct. She'd estimated he couldn't exactly utilize his ability to melt into water if he had no chakra, and she'd banked her entire strategy on that.
It seemed to have worked.
"Heh…" Suigetsu smirked up at her, almost flirtatiously. "I wouldn't mind… you draining me dry…"
"Please stop." She said flatly.
"Right, sorry."
"Surrender?" She repeated, tightening her roots once more.
"Y-yeah!" He squealed slightly. "Sheesh, gimme a break! It was a joke, lady!"
She released him, letting the roots fall to the ground. She focused hard, using the last of her chakra to move them onto her arms and body. She concentrated on the life inside those limbs, and tried to transfer it into her injuries, the same she'd done after her fight with those Akatsuki members, Hidan and Kakazu.
She felt a light hum fill her body, and let out a relaxed sigh as her wounds began to close. By the time she'd finished, the limbs of the trees around her were limp and dead, entirely spent. She let them fall back to the floor, standing back to her full height.
"Okay…" Suigetsu looked at her oddly. "So, what the hell are you, exactly?"
Sakura laughed.
"Funny." She remarked amusingly.
"I had the same question for you."
/-/
"Tell me everything you know about the Otsutsuki clan."
From the way Black Zetsu's face contorted, Obito could tell he'd struck a nerve with that opening line.
The man, if one wanted to call him a man, across him from seemed to debate several things in his head at once, and though he could obviously see from the way Obito had his Sharingan out that he would not be accepting any lies, it wasn't like he could entirely read the mostly flat face of Black Zetsu either.
The being hardly possessed a mouth, or really a face at all for that matter, aside from a large, blank yellow 'eye'.
Even still, it was his only real connection left to Madara, which meant if he wanted answers, he'd have to come to it. He would hope his Sharingan could read Zetsu enough to at least hold him accountable here.
He'd asked the black half to split from White Zetsu, not really feeling like having to kill black's mirror image to preserve whatever information passed between them, and they'd gone their separate ways rather agreeably. Even still, he found himself growing… not nervous, but uneasy.
"I have heard the name." Black Zetsu started. "While we gathered information on the major and minor villages, we found trace hints of it scattered around the world. A clan from around the mist village had small ties to it, as well as the barest of mentions in historical texts."
That lined up almost perfectly with what he himself had found. The question remained however…
Did it line up too perfectly?
Right now, there was no way of knowing. He'd continue on.
"I found a mention of it in a storybook for children." He decided to come clean, using the information he'd collected as a battering ram against Zetsu's still expression. "I found a connection with it to an ancient tale, one of a princess from the sky. Kaguya, she was called."
That drew a reaction. Black Zetsu's eye widened by approximately two milimeters, and while someone without the Sharingan would've gotten no milage out of that information…
To him, it was everything.
Zetsu knew that name.
Perhaps he was more prone to distrust than normal, having already lost two members of their organization in the last year, and finding no leads as to how that'd happened, especially when Kakazu had disappeared not fighting the Leaf ninja he'd encountered, but on the way back, but he found himself wanting to force whatever information Zetsu carried out of him here and now.
"I know the name." Zetsu confirmed, evidently deciding that either hiding what he knew wasn't worth it, or simply working with him. "Madara mentioned it once or twice, usually in conjunction with gathering the Tailed Beasts."
Now that had his attention.
"Explain."
"He would speak to you about gathering the Tailed Beasts as a means to bring about the Infinite Tsukuyomi… but in private, often he would speak of the name Kaguya. It was never an overt thing, and I have no clue as to what it means, but…"
Neither did he. Even still, the very thought that Madara hadn't been telling him everything…
Well, it wasn't entirely new. He'd known Madara wasn't exactly being truthful with him his entire life and had always fully expected him to betray him once he was revived, but even still, he'd at least believed them devoted to the same cause. Now this… if what Madara desired wasn't the Infinite Tsukuyomi, but something to due with this Kaguya figure…
"And what would you believe to be the proper course of action, Black Zetsu?" He questioned, unable to gauge whether or not Zetsu had been lying by his expression.
"I would continue as normal." Zetsu advised. "Continue collecting the Tailed Beasts, but… perhaps hold off on reviving Madara until we have more information. You would not want to bring a wildcard into this world who was stronger than all of the Akatsuki put together."
On that, they were agreed. If Madara truly wanted something else with the Tailed Beasts, then he could rot in death for all Obito cared. He could accomplish his goal on his own if need be, and only revive Madara once it was too late for the man to stop him, if he revived him at all.
Yes… he'd keep going. He was the one in control. He'd not allow Madara to manipulate him. He'd not allow anyone to manipulate him.
"Even still, I find it humorous that we waited for so long to continue collecting them so that the great nations would leave us alone… only for them to form a task force for the express purpose of eliminating us." Black Zetsu gave a raspy laugh.
His train of thought changed over, and he found himself amused as well. Not enough for it to show on his face, but the kind of amused where one simply feels a bitterness in their chest.
A laugh at something.
"It's not as if it makes a difference whether or not they're targeting us. At least this way, we can come out of the shadows, and act more overtly."
Zetsu nodded.
"What of our current assault?" The dark being asked him. "Are our members in position?"
"They are. The operation should be commencing as we speak." He spoke as he turned away, effectively ending their conversation, his questions answered and quest for knowledge fulfilled. "We'll have the Tailed Beasts…"
"Even if we have to burn the Waterfall to the ground to get them."
/-/
Fu found herself running as fast as her legs could carry her.
Another explosion rocked the great tree of the Waterfall, sending a massive branch plummeting to the floor some hundred meters below. It boomed as it hit, once more shaking the massive tree she resided in, and sending her tumbling to the floor.
"C'mon, Fu!" Kegon shouted at her, helping her up and running along with her, even as Yoro opened the door ahead of them. "We're getting you to the innermost compound, at least in there, we can hold them for a while!"
She didn't like the use of the word 'hold' there. Not 'defeat' them, but 'hold' them. She knew the Akatsuki were tough, but the fact that Kegon and Yoro spoke only of delaying them, when they had an entire village comprised of skilled ninja…
It didn't exactly fill her with hope.
Yoro popped the seal on the door in front of them, and in they went. Upon shutting the door behind them, she heard the seal refix itself to the door, locking them inside.
The room they were in looked more like a bridge to another then a final destination. Inside were several men and women: seal masters, from the looks of things. She'd never seen a single one of them, which led her to believe they were likely extraordinarily high up on the line of importance, the kind of people who didn't interact with lowly Genin a single time in their lives.
"Seal the door behind us even further. Don't let a single one inside." Kegon ordered.
It must've been a sign of how things were going, for not a single one of the ninja present, despite likely outranking Kegon by a large margin, even hesitated to follow his command.
They went to work, but before Fu could even see what they were doing, she was being taken through the space, and into a door at the back.
When they finally emerged, it was into a room she'd heard about, but never seen before.
The communications room.
And it was in uproar.
"-Can't get through!"
"Our falcons are being shot down before they can-!"
"We have no means of contacting-!"
"-Scouts reported back that they've been almost entirely destroyed! The Akatsuki have set up a perimeter all-!"
She found her heart beating at a mile a minute as Kegon pulled her along. Yoro walked over towards the communicators, asking them a few questions, before slamming his fist down on the desk when he, presumably, didn't get an answer he wanted.
He walked back over to them, his expression grim.
"We can't get into contact with anyone. Not the Leaf or the Sand. Hell, not even the Hidden Stone. They're shooting our falcons out of the air, and our scouts on the ground are being picked apart. None of them can get out of the village."
Kegon cursed, gripping her hand a bit tighter than he perhaps meant to.
"Without that… they'll take their time destroying the tree until they can root us out, and then they'll pounce…"
Ice filled her veins, and she felt someone in her heart that she'd never experienced before.
Fear for her life.
She'd not had the chance to feel it the last few times she'd been in scenarios like this. She'd either been knocked out before Kegon and Yoro were by that shark guy, or immediately saved by Naruto and those guys from the Leaf when faced with those zombie-like guys. Now, faced with the prospect of a slow and drawn out end…
She found she wanted nothing more than to cry.
No! A voice in her head shouted, raging against the idea. What can I do? Think, Fu! There has to be something!
What could she offer? She wasn't very strong, only around a Chuunin in strength without her Tailed Beast intervening, and she wasn't particularly smart either. She couldn't get out of the village, even with her wings, as she'd be handing herself over to the enemy. She was likely the sole reason they were here.
What could she offer, what did she have that–
A small wriggling in her back pocket had her eyes widening, and she reached into it, pulling from within the same beetle that had, just this morning, brought a message from Hinata.
It'd been sweet and nice and now was totally not the time to be thinking about that, because she had waaay more pressing matters to attend to, like the fact that she might just have a solution to their predicament.
"A-Actually!" She shouted, drawing the attention of most of the people in the room.
In response to their looks, she held up the beetle in her hands, which gave a small chitter in response.
"I… I might have a way to contact the Leaf!"
End Chapter 71
So to open: Was what Black Zetsu said true?
Eh... I mean, think on it. I won't expressly say either way, but no, I'm not rewriting canon if that's what you're asking.
Time for everyone's favorite segment: Deferonz comments on League of Legends Worlds!
G2 lost, so finally, finally I've actually managed to predict a series correctly this worlds. I mean... it had to happen one day, right? I predicted DRX vs DWG correctly to be fair, but like... that one was a literal rematch of a game that'd happened a month prior. No points were awarded for getting that one right.
Anyways, finals are DWG and SN... I think the winner will be DWG, but I'd rather it be SN I think? Who knows.
Alright, moving along to next weeks chapter, Fu's under attack... again! Will our heroes manage to save her, or will she meet her end at the hands of the Akatsuki?
Find out next week, only on Toonami!
(In all seriousness, see you all next week!)
