The Wanderers
Chapter 18 – Illusions
A/N: Rumours abound seem to indicate that Naruto will be finishing soon. A shame, but all good things must come to an end. I will still be continuing this story of course, even if Naruto isn't continuing, my story will. If you think I've deviated now, wait until later on. It gets crazy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, there would be more happy and calm scenarios.
***Previously-On***
With his upgraded Byakugan active, Neji infiltrates the Sound Village in the hope of finding any potential Konoha prisoners. After a short interrogation, and subsequent execution of a butcher doctor, he finds himself in a medical lab with several bodies inside. After reading a fair amount about the Cursed Seal, and how the Sound Leader was struggling to keep his forces together, Neji discovers that the bodies were the only remnants of the forces of Konoha that weren't present during the destruction of the village, and that they were experimented on, to their deaths. Across the village, in the training room, Itachi and Sasuke found themselves confronted by a monstrous-looking six-armed shinobi called Kidomaru. After barely overcoming a hidden fear of spiders, Sasuke helped his brother push the spider-like shinobi back, until he summoned two giant spiders to attack them. In a prolonged battle, they were able to defeat the summoned creatures, but just as they were attempting to recover, Kidomaru drove a powerful arrow strike through Sasuke's chest. Itachi was able to defend the next two attacks, and with clever use of Kage Bunshin tricked the Sound shinobi to think they were dead. In a surprising move, Kidomaru healed Sasuke of his injury, but was subsequently trapped in Tsukuyomi by Itachi. He expressed a disinterest in struggling against the Uchiha, and after explaining his motivations, he told Itachi that his quest was for naught, that there were no Konoha survivors left. Feeling merciful, Itachi simply knocks out Kidomaru and moves back to help his little brother. Elsewhere in the Village, the invasion continues.
***End Summary***
***Hinata – Kiba – Sakura – Lee***
Reaching down to make sure her white Hyuuga dress was on straight, Hinata reached out and knocked twice on the double doors in front of her. A voice from inside the room told her to enter, which she did quickly, closing the door behind her. She smiled warmly at the figure behind the large desk, watching him write frantically as the sun was slowly setting behind him through the windows of the room. She knew he was busy, but he was also somewhat forgetful, and she needed to remind him of certain things at times. She walked across the room slowly, moving around the desk so that she was standing beside him. It had taken her a while to get used to the idea, but after ten years there was no dispute that he was well suited to the job.
"What are you writing?" she asked softly, hoping she wasn't disturbing a peace treaty signing or similar.
The blonde figure finishing signing the document with his pen before closing the folder slowly, breathing out a sigh of exhaustion and putting the pen down on the paper-covered desk. He looked up and smiled at the white-eyed woman's face, his smile growing as she leant down and kissed his cheek.
"Just some ANBU promotions. Shikamaru has been on my case to do them for nearly a month, but I haven't had the time until now."
He stood up slowly as a weasel masked shinobi appeared on the opposite side of the desk. He reached into a desk draw before handing the ANBU a folded envelope with his signature on the front.
"Please take this to the Suna ambassador. And tell her that if Gaara doesn't like the terms of this trade treaty, he can come here himself and tell me that. In fact, tell her to leave my Nara clan head alone for a few days, and get the Kazekage over here. We haven't had drinks in months."
With a silent nod, the ANBU vanished into a puff of smoke as Naruto slowly pushed his chair into his desk and looked at Hinata with a smile. He reached out and pushed his fingers into her hands.
"You didn't have to come here you know, I could have met you at home."
Hinata smiled again and leant her forehead on his, "I wanted to see you. Besides, did you forget what today is?"
He playfully moved his head and pecked her on the lips.
"Of course not. But you are the Hyuuga clan head; you have responsibilities beyond just me."
She softly pushed him back before looking at the clock on the wall.
"We are going to be late, Hokage-sama."
Naruto chuckled at the title, "Ooo, you only call me that in bed. Do you want to…?"
"Naruto! We can't do that in your office!"
He pouted, but conceded her point. He reached onto the table and retrieved his hat, placing it on his head before walking around his desk to retrieve his flame adorned robe.
"Should we go straight there?" he asked, pulling the robe on over his shoulders.
Hinata stepped across and helped straighten the robes, "We need to go home first, remember?"
Naruto shook his head with a smile, as if it was so obvious. He thanked her for her help, looked around his office once to check that there wasn't anything else he needed to do before they left. Hinata slid an arm around his shoulder, closing her eyes for a moment. When she opened them she let go of Naruto as she saw the fountain that was at the centre of the complex. Naruto looked over at one of the sections of the complex.
"I'm gonna go get changed. Could you…?"
"Of course. I'll meet you there. She doesn't like it when you use Hiraishin."
"I'll see you at the Academy. Love you."
Hinata smiled as he walked into the bedroom section of their complex. She walked into the nearby open door, removing her sandals at the opening before looking at the clean living room. A young woman came out of the nearby corridor, wiping her hands on a cloth, smiling as she saw Hinata.
"Lady Hyuuga, welcome home. Would you like me to prepare some supper?"
Hinata shook her head slowly, "I keep telling you to call me Hinata, Yui."
"Of course, Lady Hyuuga. Dinner?"
"No, no. We are just on our way out. Is she awake?"
Her maid waved her over to a nearby room, putting the cloth into her pocket before opening the door for Hinata, showing her into the bedroom. Walking into the room, Hinata felt her heart swell with pride as she saw the crib in the middle of the room.
"Do you need anything else, Lady Hyuuga?" asked the maid.
Her mistress shook her head slowly as she walked over to the crib, "Go home for the evening, Yui. Tell your husband hello from both of us. Thank you."
The maid closed the door quietly after thanking Hinata. She looked into the crib with a smile, looking at the little baby girl inside. She had short black hair and pure white eyes, with the softest skin that only babies could have. Hinata reached down slowly, as the baby girl opened her eyes slowly and reached out to her mother with a smile.
"Ah, hey there, Kushina. Would you like to come with mummy and daddy to the Academy?"
After a few minutes of cuddling, Hinata put some clothes on the three month old before carrying her out to the courtyard. It was only a short distance from their manor to the Academy, but Hinata knew that she would get there in time if she walked fast enough. Ten minutes later she saw the group gathering at the Academy, a few in the crowd giving way for her to get through. As the wife of the Hokage, and Hyuuga clan head, there was no-one in the village who didn't know who she was, and that fame took a while for the generally introverted Hinata to get used to.
"It's good that you could make it."
Hinata turned to face the speaker, smiling as she saw Ino standing opposite her. The Yamanaka clan head was heavily pregnant with her first child, but all the clan heads had been invited to the Academy ceremony, it was after all a big day for the village. Ino reached over and patted the baby Kushina softly with a wide smile, before turning at a loud noise at the edge of the crowd. Ino simply laughed as Hinata rolled her eyes.
"I think that is your husband, Lady Hyuuga."
"You wouldn't think he is the leader of our village, considering how he behaves" replied Hinata.
She made her through the crowd towards the loud noise, until she reached the clearing, where the students of the Academy were gathered, with the parents behind them. In his outrageously obvious orange jacket, Naruto was even more recognisable than in his Hokage outfit, while the dark haired man he was arguing with was slightly less outrageous in his dark blue and black outfit. At the sight of his wife, Naruto smiled widely before leaning down to kiss his daughter on the forehead.
"Hinata, could you please tell this teme that I won't be giving him any special consideration just because we used to fight together."
His young wife frowned at his language in front of his daughter but let it go, seeing the Uchiha clan head Sasuke sighed in frustration. Naruto went to make another comment, but was silenced as a bell rang in front of the lined up students, as the teachers began to file out.
"Oh good, they are about to start. Hey teme, I got four hundred ryou on my kid beating yours."
Sasuke frowned at his childhood friend, but reached into his robe before pulling out a small roll of bills. Hinata simply shook her head as she saw the head of the Academy take the stage. Sakura reached over the podium before regarding her students.
"It is with great pleasure that we are all here today, to celebrate the next generation's ascension into our ranks. You children are the future of Konoha, and everyone gathered here would agree that while you have a big task ahead of you, we know you are up to the task."
One of her teachers pulled away the cloth on the nearby table, revealing two long rows of forehead protectors. She read through the names of the graduating students one at a time, as the new Genin came up to receive their forehead protector from their teachers.
"Uzumaki Renji."
A blonde ten-year old in the front row stood up slowly, trying to keep a serious expression at the roaring clapping coming from his father and most of the crowd. He walked over to Sakura and shook her hand while waving to the crowd, looking at his parents through his white eyes with a slow smile. He accepted his forehead protector with a calm bow, taking a moment to place it across his forehead before taking his seat again. Sakura looked down at the last name with a smile.
"Uchiha Erika."
The young black haired ten-year old sitting next to Renji bounced up with a yell, slapping the blonde Genin on the back before running up to the stage. Sakura smiled with a shake of her head and she grasped the young girl's hand. She handed her the forehead protector before pulling out a scroll from her pocket and handing it to the new Genin.
She turned back to the microphone, "While I've got her here, I would like to announce Miss Uchiha as the top Genin of this Year. Despite her…eccentricities, Erika has displayed the great aptitude and we are proud to give her this scroll as recognition for her hard work."
With an unceremonious punch in the air, the young Uchiha ran back down to her seat, tying her forehead protector around her head on the way down. After the ceremony was finished, the two new Genin walked slowly towards their parents. With a sigh, Naruto handed over a small stack of bills to Sasuke's outstretched hand, making sure neither child could see before smiling and rubbing his son's hair. Sasuke hugged his daughter and told her he was very proud of her, and that he was sure her mother would have been too.
"How come you didn't get Genin of the Year? Didn't you get special recognition for learning the Kage Bunshin?"
Renji chuckled as he put a hand behind his neck, "I don't know, Dad. I guess Erika just did better than me."
Hinata watched in amusement at the interaction between her son and the younger Uchiha, as her husband and his friend argued once again. She smiled sadly as she looked at her daughter's face in her arms.
I don't think I could be any happier.
The baby had barely fallen asleep as Hinata rocked her arms slowly, watching as Renji and Erika slipped away from their bickering fathers, their hands together as they began discussing what they were going to do now that they were Genin.
It's a shame none of this is real. I could stay here forever, if given the option.
You know it is an illusion?
Of course. As much as I want this, this isn't real. Thank you for letting me enjoy it though, I haven't felt hope like this in a long time.
You wouldn't rather stay? It seems like quite a life. I certainly wouldn't blame you.
Why would you try this type of illusion? How does this incapacitate me?
The mind can give in to its inner-most desires easier than breaking under pressure.
She leant over and handed baby Kushina to her husband before putting her hands together.
I will miss you, Kushina, Renji. I hope to meet you sometime in the future.
"Kai!"
oOoOoOo
He gave a hand signal for the others of the group to stop as he eyed the enclave. Their unit had been tracking the target for days, and he had finally come to rest at the small complex beneath their position. The large white dog standing next to him barked three times as the other members of the group fell in behind Kiba. It was difficult to see anything beyond his ANBU mask, but with his enhanced nose he could almost everything that was happening around him.
"The target is inside?"
Kiba turned to the speaker, a young woman in a Cat animal mask, the newest addition to his squad. The Inuzuka leader looked at her through his Dog mask, knowing that she couldn't see the grin on his face. The other two members of his squad simply stood in silence, knowing better than to get in Kiba's way. The Dragon masked shinobi trusted Kiba enough to lead them, as he had for several years now. The Mantis masked shinobi didn't say anything either, though he had known Kiba long enough that there was no point in arguing, let alone speaking.
"Yes, Cat. Now be quiet while I lay out the plan."
The feline ANBU put up her hands, "Alright, alright. No need to get snippy."
After a few minutes of describing their plan of entry, Kiba fuelled a small amount of chakra through his hands; letting his claws stretch out before nodding to the Mantis masked ANBU. The Konoha shinobi gave no response, disappearing into a cloud of insects as the other two prepared their weapons.
"Do you expect him to resist?" asked Cat.
Reaching up slowly, Kiba removed his mask and placed it in his pack. He hated fighting with his mask on, but he also wanted to show Cat what happened when a shinobi was hasty. Across his face was a long scar he had a long scar that he had received after hunting down their target's partner, and the toxin in the strike hadn't left him the prettiest dog in the pack, though his mother called it 'endearing', as did his wife.
"Cat, when you are in the ANBU, you prepare for anything. We are here to hunt down a terrorist that has killed more than his fair share of powerful shinobi."
Beside him, Akamaru barked at him, causing Kiba to nod at the large white dog. He told Cat to take her position as Akamaru transformed into a clone of Kiba. She complied and disappeared into a puff of smoke as both Kibas began to move swiftly under the cover of the night sky. It had taken him a few years to get used to the idea of stealthy attacking a position, but to his initial surprise the Inuzuka clan had several infiltration techniques that worked perfectly. Both he and Akamaru kept to the shadows as they infiltrated the enclave, making quick progress until they saw an open area in the middle of the complex. A man with blonde hair sat in the middle of a beautifully preserved garden, covered by a black cloak with red and white clouds across it.
Kiba signalled to Akamaru with his hands, that's our target.
Almost on queue, their target stood up slowly before placing his arms outstretched. Given their information on the target, it didn't surprise Kiba at all that he had discovered their approach.
"And the critics have circled the artist once more. You people really are persistent."
Kiba frowned as he saw the strange-looking mouths on the target's palms, long tongues protruding from them as he turned around slowly, placing one hand into a handseal. Kiba's eyes widened as he realised what their target was going to do. He watched in horror as Dragon leapt from the shadows and went to slash through their target with his sword, but as one of his feet touched the grass he felt a strange sensation beneath him.
The target smiled widely with his back to the Dragon masked ANBU, "I'm not really much of an impressionist, sadly."
The ground beneath Dragon exploded as the landmine he had stepped on consumed him in a pillar of fire. Cat called out in anger from her position, leaping out to strike at the target. Keeping the wide grin on his face, the target turned around to face her. With a strange laugh, a small piece of white substance came out of the hand's mouth, turning into a small bird-like creature. The clay animal flew straight into her face, before exploding with a handseal from the target, causing her to fall to the ground, straight into another landmine, which destroyed what little the bird had left. Kiba swore but held back, telling Akamaru silently to hold position. This wasn't an opponent to rush into; such an action had resulted in the deaths of both Dragon and Cat. He watched as the target flinched visibly, before thrashing around with his legs. It took a moment, and a sniff, but Kiba realised that Mantis had been able to get some Destruction Bugs underneath the target; a large portion of his hive was committed as they began to cover the target's legs and crawl up over his torso.
A large swarm appeared in front of their target as he began to scream while the insects sucked out his chakra. The swarm opposite the explosion user transformed into Mantis, who pulled out a kunai from his robe. While Mantis excelled at taking down his targets without killing them, their orders were purely assassination. As Mantis reached back to slice the target's throat, he noticed a strange set of movements with his insects that were immobilising the target. Kiba noticed it from his position, moving from his position as he called for Mantis to move, but he was too late. From a further away position, their target appeared to come out of a nearby tree, with a wild grin on his face.
"Misdirection and illusion are also a part of art. And art…is a BANG!"
Kiba watched in horror as the clone covered by insects and opposite Mantis exploded violently, forcing both Kiba and Akamaru to fall back to cover themselves from the explosion. After the dust settled, Kiba looked over at Akamaru in despair. Nothing had gone according to plan. Despite their platoon being one of the strongest in ANBU service, they had been destroyed by this one shinobi. He considered their priorities for a moment. He realised that nothing was worth this, and that to throw himself against a clearly stronger opponent would go against his friend's memories.
We need to take this information back to Konoha. Hokage-sama will need to know what happened.
He signalled to Akamaru, who transformed back into his white dog form before sniffing at the air. Kiba noticed a strange look across the dog's face, taking a moment to sniff the air himself. Akamaru barked at him loudly and leapt straight at him, hitting him in the chest hard. Kiba felt the wind fly out of him as he fell back throw a nearby wall from the blow.
"What the hell, Akamaru!"
The white dog gave a soft, almost helpless bark at his long time companion, as Kiba saw what his friend had done. He called out for someone to help, but before he could do anything the ground beneath Akamaru flashed brightly as the air thundered around them.
"AKAMARU!"
Kiba shook his head as he opened his eyes, feeling a soft hand on his shoulder. He looked over to see Hinata's smiling face as she finished releasing him from the genjutsu. For an instant he panicked as he couldn't see his companion anywhere, but he felt a nudge at his leg as Akamaru rubbed his head against Kiba's leg in concern. The Inuzuka sighed in relief, reaching down and rubbing the white fur affectionately.
"I thought I lost you. Damnit, that was just too real."
oOoOoOo
Sakura stared at the body underneath her body hands, Lee moaned in agony as she struggled to keep his insides from spilling out.
"Sakura-san…it hurts…"
She shook her head to gather her thoughts before pushing her hands back into his stomach. None of them had expected the ambush; it was a miracle that any of them had survived. Sakura stole a glance at the other bodies around her. Ino was the first one to go down, her body lying face down in the mud as the rain pelted down onto the ground. She had taken the brunt of the ambush, four kunai striking her in the back before being peppered in the face by small fireballs. Upon checking her, Sakura could tell she was dead the moment she hit the ground. Their next companion hadn't lasted much longer either. After the Sound shinobi revealed themselves Naruto had roared out in anger at the ambush, charging straight at the two shinobi that had appeared before them. One of the Sound shinobi slashed at Naruto with his sword, but went clean through as it was a Kage Bunshin.
Out of the Sound shinobi's blind spot, rose the original Naruto, swinging at the enemy's head with Hirameki. Without losing a step, the shinobi turned his sword back and stepped backwards, driving the sword directly into Naruto's stomach. Time seemed to freeze for a moment before the Sound shinobi wrenched up the blade, cutting Naruto from naval to nose. The blonde shinobi fell to the ground without a sound, blood spraying all over the ground as he died slowly and painfully, unable to scream since his vocal cords were cut. Lee had run the length of the battlefield in an instant, driving his leg into the shinobi that had just killed Naruto, blocking the sword with his leg weights as he took out the shinobi with a chakra-charged fist.
He stood up for a moment before driving his foot into the fallen shinobi's ribcage, killing him brutally. The Sound shinobi's companion fell back and put his hands together. After a few seconds Lee fell to the ground screaming, holding his ears in agony as blood trickled from his eyes. Sakura called out for him to move, but couldn't stop the attack as the Sound shinobi ran up and drove a kunai into Lee's chest. After a prolonged battle, Sakura was able to beat the Sound shinobi, but as she struggled to close Lee's chest, she knew it was folly. Lee opened his eyes slowly and looked at Sakura's face as blood spilt onto the ground.
"Sa…kura…san…w…hy?"
With a final gasp, he collapsed onto the ground, Sakura screaming as her bloody hand still glowed with the blue medical technique. After a few minutes of struggling she stood up slowly.
"Alright, you've had your fun. Are you going to release me now?"
She waited for a moment, until the silence made her roll her eyes and put her hands together.
This might be a convincing enough illusion, but I've had enough. I should have released this from the start; I definitely didn't need to see everyone die.
"Kai!"
oOoOoOo
"How far are we from the finish line, Lee?"
The younger Konoha shinobi grinned as the two of them raced towards the village. It was their annual race from Suna to Konoha, and after making Chuunin, Lee was determined to finally beat his teacher.
"No more than a few miles, Gai-sensei."
"How right you are, my youthful student."
Gai powered forward, edging past Lee slightly before the younger shinobi roared out in determination and raged forward. They were neck and neck for the rest of the trek, until the giant gates of the village came into distance. Gai skidded to a halt a few hundred feet from the gate, causing Lee to barrel past him before attempting to stop himself, his face landing on the ground awkwardly.
"What is it, Gai-sensei?" he asked as he picked himself up from the ground.
His teacher frowned as Lee jogged back to his position.
He pointed to the gates of the village in front of them, "Why are the gates closed? It's the middle of the day."
"Maybe there was some special meeting that required them to close the gates."
Gai shook his head slowly, indicating for Lee to follow him as they went into the tree line to the side of the village.
"If there was a meeting of that magnitude, there would have been a hawk to tell us. Come, let us scale the wall and see if we can get one of the sentry's attention."
Lee watched as Gai leapt straight from the ground onto the wall battlements in a single bound, smiling in pride at his teacher's display of ability. As he went to replicate the feat, he felt a sinking feeling in his stomach, causing him to hesitate as he saw Gai disappear into the village. The feeling didn't disappear, and as soon as he looked up a bright flash came from inside the village. He cried out, but could do nothing as the village appeared to explode from the inside outwards, knocking him off his feet and slamming his head into the ground. A few minutes later Lee opened his eyes, and ducked instinctively as a foot nearly took his head off.
"Ah, good work my youthful student. However if you only duck under a high strike, than your opponent can follow it up with a low strike which would take you by surprise."
The new Genin Lee stood up quickly with a salute, "Yes, Gai-sensei! I understand!"
His teacher nodded before taking an offensive stance. He had been teaching Lee personally since he had graduated from the Academy, and despite his propensity to challenge his Hyuuga teammate, he saw real potential in the young taijutsu user. Gai showed him several moves from his own skill set before telling Lee that he wanted to watch something. The young taijutsu user sat on a nearby rock as a silver-haired Konoha shinobi came up to Gai and shook his hand before taking a step backwards. Lee watched in awe as the two Jounin began to spar. He recognised Hatake Kakashi from his teacher's rants, but he hadn't expected the one-eyed Jounin to be such an even match for the green-clad Jounin. Gai went to take Kakashi's head off with his leg, but as Kakashi ducked he shifted his attack and swept his other leg across at the silver-haired Jounin. Lee watched as Kakashi rolled back and threw a set of kunai at Gai, which the taijutsu-user simply batted away with a laugh. After a few minutes of sparring, Kakashi leapt back and attempted to attack Gai with ninjutsu. He sent a large fireball at Lee's teacher, following it up with several large rocks attacks, all of which were deftly avoided by Gai.
"Come now, my eternal rival! Let us take this to the next level!"
He looked over at Lee with a smile, indicating that this was something he should see. With his arms crossed over his chest, Gai's skin began to turn red as Lee could feel the power fluctuate throughout the air. He almost fell over at the shockwave as Gai went screaming towards Kakashi, who had subsequently revealed his Sharingan and put his hand to the ground. Lightning began to crackle around the silver-haired Jounin's lowered hand as Lee could barely keep up with Gai's movements as he shot towards Kakashi. Lee felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as Kakashi moved his head slightly, the Jounin deftly avoiding the green-clad Jounin's first punch before jumping back and powering towards him with his lightning charged hand ready. Lee could feel the change in the air, but could do nothing to stop it as he watched the end of the fight. Gai went to dodge the simple thrust and strike at Kakashi's side, but the Sharingan user moved to intercept the counter, closing the distance between the two of them as he drove the lightning blade straight through Gai's chest and out the other side. Lee could feel himself break out into a scream, but found his voice unable to comply. He began to hyperventilate and fell to the ground. He woke up to a stinging pain on his face, as he looked around to see Sakura moving to slap him in the face again. He was able to duck in time, but it also helped that both Hinata and Kiba pulled her back.
"Sakura-san, I think he's back" said Hinata, letting go of the pink-haired medic.
Her companion nodded before taking a long breathe, it had taken all three of them to wake Lee from the illusion.
"Are you okay, Lee?" asked Kiba.
The taijutsu user nodded and looked around the room, swearing that the illusion was too real to just be a genjutsu, but keeping that to himself. They all turned around as the music in the room cut off, as a young woman revealed herself before them. She had long wild pink hair, dirtier than Sakura's, kept under a black bandaged hat. She also wore a black and white tunic, with a large purple robe to tie it off, and long angled line covered her pale skin.
"So you all managed to escape my illusions? Don't get ahead of yourselves, you trash. I haven't even begun to play the true melody of death. You should feel privileged. Not everyone gets to hear the music of Tayuya of the North Gate."
She reached down into her side pocket and pulled out a long blue flute, taking a moment to grin before putting the instrument to her lips.
***Naruto – Ino – Shizune – Chouji***
"Hey, I'm not short!"
Ino turned and looked at Naruto with her best are-you-kidding-me stare. Even though he had grown a fair bit over the past six months, he was still one of the shortest in the group.
"Naruto, you are even shorter than Hinata."
"Hey! That's not true! We measured the other day; I'm two centimetres taller than her."
Behind the two of them Shizune chuckled, causing both of them to turn around. Naruto asked the elder medic why she was laughing, to which Shizune replied that she recalled that when they were measuring their heights, Hinata had carefully taken off her sandals so as to make it appear like Naruto was taller than her, despite the fact that he wasn't. Naruto's eyes widened at the revelation, almost tempted to flash to his girlfriend to check, but decided it was something for another time.
"Are you lot finished?"
They all turned and faced the Sound shinobi that had created the purple field that had trapped them inside the room. He was a strange looking shinobi, with an arrogant smirk on his face. He had dark grey hair with long bangs covering half of his face, and there was a strange bump at his back above his brown and white tunic. There were long circle-like black marks across his face and down his neck, and a set of red beads around his neck.
"Who the hell are you?" yelled out Naruto, his fists clenched.
The Sound shinobi shook his head before running a hand through his grey hair.
"I suppose the right thing to do is to tell your opponents your name before you butcher them. Sakon of the West Gate."
With a smirk, he disappeared into a flash, appearing right in front of Ino before slamming a fist into her chest, sending her crashing into Naruto.
"What the hell?" gasped Ino, silently thanking Naruto as she kept her feet steady.
Sakon straightened up and laughed, cracking his fist menacingly. Naruto kept his cool as two clones came up from behind the Sound shinobi, their fists raised to strike him in the head. Almost the second they were going to strike him, Sakon flipped around faster than any of them thought possible, slamming a fist across the two clone's heads, causing them to explode into smoke.
He turned around with a grin, "Kage Bunshin? How amusing."
Ino jumped back as Sakon leapt at the original Naruto with his fist raised, it almost appearing like there were several fists as he went to strike the blonde in the face.
"Tarenken!" (Multiple Connected Fists)
Naruto tried to move his head out of the path of the extremely fast strike, but the several fists clipped his face, sending him hurtling into the nearby wall. Sakon laughing at the blonde as the others of the group ran to help him.
"You are down already? How…disappointing."
Naruto grimaced as he struggled to pick himself up from the ground. Shizune already getting her medical technique ready, but stepped back as Naruto shook his head as slightly as he could. Both Ino and Shizune watched as a figure came from above their enemy, right in his blind spot with his sword ready to slice him in half. Just as the blade was about to cut between Sakon's head and the bulge at the top of his back, two arms shot out of his shoulder and grasped the blonde shinobi's sword by the blade, as Sakon's regular arms reached up and dragged Naruto to the ground, the extra arms moving through Sakon's shoulders and into his chest, making it a total of four arms.
"What the hell?" said a disgusted Ino.
She'd never heard of a technique like that, let alone one that allowed him to see like he had eyes in the back of his head. Naruto tried to wrench Hirameki from Sakon's grip, alarmed at the fact that the Sound shinobi was able to grab the razor sharp blade with his mysterious bare hands.
"You've got some interesting skills, trash. But not good enough."
With a sharp movement, the two hands grasping the sword cracked their wrists, snapping the sword into two pieces as Sakon pulled back a fist before driving it into Naruto's chest. He cried out in pain and coughed violently onto Sakon's chest as he fell to his knees.
Sakon looked down at him in disgust, "Bah, one strike and you are already down? I was hoping to get some fun out of this."
He frowned as he heard a few short laughs in-between Naruto's coughing. Reaching down he grabbed the blonde by the scruff of his jacket, pulling him up so that they were eye level, Naruto's feet dangling underneath him.
"Something funny?"
Naruto swallowed slowly and took a long painful breath before smiling as he stared at Sakon's face.
"It's just…wasn't a good idea…to call him fat…"
The Sound shinobi frowned for a moment, until Naruto reached over and grabbed him with his hands, while wrapping his legs around his arms. Behind Shizune and Ino, the sitting Naruto smiled as the hardy clone took several punches to the face from Sakon, from the arms coming out of his body, but it didn't let go.
"HURRAY FOR FAT PEOPLE! Nikudan Sensha!"
The ground began to shake as the enlarged Chouji leapt forward into a ball and rolled powerfully towards Sakon and the clone of Naruto. The Sound shinobi struggled to pull off the clone as Chouji made quick time in closing the distance. Sakon swore loudly as a hand came out of his chest and drove a kunai straight into the clone's neck, the fatal strike causing the clone to explode into smoke. He went to jump away, but a tendril of water appeared from behind him and crashed into Sakon's head, sending him straight into the ground. Ino smiled at her success while Naruto hopped up from his position and stood next to her and Shizune as Chouji rolled straight into the flailing Sound shinobi's body. After rolling over Sakon, feeling dozens of bones break at the high speed weighted ball, Chouji cancelled the technique and leapt back to his teammates as he shrank back to his normal size. Looking over the three teenagers, Shizune couldn't fathom how they had been able to pull off such teamwork, without any signals or verbal cues between one another. Turning around to check, Naruto frowned when he saw that the purple field was still covering the doorway. He turned back around, and his eyes widened as he saw Sakon slowly pick himself up from the ground.
"Damn brats…that bloody hurt."
The Konoha group watched in horror as he snapped his leg back into place and stood up, pulling one arm back into socket as the fingers on his hands cracked back into their original positions.
"What the hell is he?" asked a frightened Ino.
Next to her, Shizune frowned as she watched the many wounds on Sakon strangely heal themselves. She reached up and bit at both of her thumbs,
"That's some very powerful regenerative abilities. More powerful than Kabuto's, nearly as strong as my own."
She ran through the seals and slammed both hands onto the ground beneath her.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
Not wanting to let his opponent recover, Naruto charged towards Sakon, a dozen clones appearing behind him to assist. The plume of smoke that came from Shizune's hands disappeared, as two tall figures appeared from within the smoke. Both Ino and Chouji were amazed at what they saw, and taking a step back she had to admit the two tigers cut impressive figures. Unlike most of her summons, they stood on two paws, eight feet tall each with pitch black armour plates covering their white fur. Both of them had long staves with battleaxe blades at the end. They stood perfectly still, not moving an inch as Shizune made sure that Naruto was okay keeping Sakon momentarily occupied.
"At ease, boys."
Both of them relaxed immediately, the left tiger turning and saluting Shizune with a wild grin.
"Good morning, Lady Shizune. How might we serve?"
She smiled back, "Good morning, San. How fares your father?"
The right tiger coughed awkwardly before pointing his axe at the battle, as Sakon threw back Naruto with relative ease. Shizune turned back around, mentally smacking herself. The tiger called San, who had three stripes across his shoulder plates; nodded in agreement with his fellow tiger, taking his battleaxe in hand before telling Shizune that he would speak to her once the battle was won. The two tigers ran past the fallen Naruto, who watched them in amazement as they engaged Sakon with their whirling battleaxes.
"You have some very powerful summons, Shizune-sensei" commented Ino, watching as they attacked with such speed that even Sakon was pushed back and was unable to counter their swift attacks.
"How did you get them? I'd never heard of tiger summons before meeting you" asked a curious Chouji.
"Pure luck. The tigers are a society removed from ours, and they are very strict about who they will ally with. The two tigers there? Look at their shoulder plates. The one with three stripes is called San, and the one with six stripes is called Roku. They are the third and sixth sons of the great Tiger Lord, the one who helped me defeat Kabuto."
Sakon ducked under a slice of San's battleaxe, and was forced to then roll backwards to avoid Roku's blade. As he stood up, he copped a kick to the face, sending him crashing into the wall.
"Shouldn't we help them?" asked Naruto as he recovered from his brutal encounter with the Sound shinobi.
Shizune shook her head, "No. Not only would we get in their way, but they would consider it a serious breach of their honour. Don't worry, they train their whole lives for these kind of battles. They are far better fighters than any of us."
Sakon pulled himself off the wall and spat blood onto the ground, the black circles now completely covering his body.
"Damnit, these damn furry bastards are strong."
I need to go on offence.
The two tigers stood in offence stances while waiting for him to make his move, centuries of training had taught them near infinite patience. Sakon tapped his foot on the ground, and behind him two extra feet came out of his legs and pushed off the wall as his original feet pushed off the ground with a spurt of chakra, sending him flying towards Roku, his fists flaring. The tiger almost rolled his eyes at the straightforward attack, holding his battleaxe up with its blade outwards while pushing a foot backwards. San ran to intercept the flying Sound shinobi, but while knew he wouldn't get there in time; he had faith in his younger brother. As it seemed like Sakon was about to hit the outstretched blade with his multiple fists attack, a leg shot out from his at a peculiar angle, causing him to rocket into the air and straight over Roku's head. He almost laughed as he landed on the other side of the tiger, before eying his real targets and rapidly moving to attack the four Konoha shinobi, wary of a prolonged fight with the tiger combatants.
Behind him, San ran past his younger brother and roared out loud, causing Shizune's eyes to widen and clap her hands together. A wide wall of water encompassed the four of them as she yelled for the Genin to move to the side. Sakon didn't understand how a wall of water would help them against his close combat attacks; he was the only one of the Sound Four who didn't attack from range. He went to kick off from the ground near their position to attack them from the air with his multiple fists attack, but as his foot hit the ground he felt no strength in the limb. Taking a glance directly in front of him, he noticed that one of the battleaxes was buried deep into the wall behind the wall of water, directly in front of Sakon.
What the hell? How did it…oh…
He looked down for a split second before crashing into the ground. A long red line appeared down his right side, as the section of his body from his neck to his arm split off from his body and fell apart from the rest of him. Shizune dropped the water wall and watched as both of the tiger warriors jogged up to the group, San moving to the wall to retrieve his battleaxe.
"Are you sure he's dead?" asked Naruto, wary of the Sound shinobi's regenerative capabilities.
Both Roku and San stood with their battleaxes in front of the group, Roku with a stern expression while San smiled at the group.
"Our blades rend flesh as easily as our claws. Rest easy, he is dead."
Shizune gave the tigers a bow, "Thank you for your help. We could not have done this without you."
"I'm sure you could have, Lady Shizune. It is our pleasure to assist you."
"Tell your father I send my regards."
The two tigers gave her a quick salute before disappearing in two puffs of smoke. The four of them sighed in relief, taking a few moments to calm their nerves at the surprisingly short battle.
"So, who's up for ramen?" asked Naruto.
Beside him, Chouji nodded his agreement; he hadn't had a decent meal in days. Behind Chouji, Ino ran a hand through her hair, grimacing as she felt her sore ribs from the initial attack had bruised several of her ribs. Broken bones were easily healed with her medical techniques, but bruised muscles had to heal themselves.
"I could use a bath" she said, pulling out a comb from her pack.
"A bath does sound nice, right about now" said Shizune.
They all knew they still had a mission to complete, but after such a high intensity battle it was difficult to get motivated to continue. Naruto turned around slowly, a confused look on his face as he saw the entrance.
"Uh, guys…we've got a problem."
"What is it?" asked Shizune, turning around as well before she noticed what Naruto was concerned about.
"What does that mean?" he asked.
She shrugged in response, barrier techniques were not her speciality. The violet field was still covering the entrance, and with a quick check with a clone, it still set anyone who touched it on fire.
"Never thought we would have to split up under those circumstances."
"It was inevitable, Sakon. Those beasts were stronger than Kimimaro, at his peak."
"Still hurts like hell though."
"Quit your complaining. The enemies are still here."
All four of the Konoha group turned at once at the sound of the conversation, recognising the first voice but not recognising the deeper voice that came afterwards. They were all amazed by what they saw. Where they had been expecting to see a body in two pieces, they saw two fully pieced together shinobi, both looking identical to the first shinobi.
"Is it a clone technique?" muttered Naruto, trying to figure out the technique until he noticed that the bulge of hair on the shinobi's back was gone.
The left one's bangs covered his right eye and he still wore the red beads around his neck, while the right one's bangs covered his left and he had a wide smirk on his face.
"I expected more, brother. But I guess we can't say anything about surprises, can we, Sakon?"
The right one seemed to be the origin of the deeper voice, while the left one swore at the other's comments.
"Don't give me that crap, Ukon. If we don't fight them at their strongest, then there is no fun in it."
"Your playfulness will get us killed, Sakon. We should kill the woman before she can summon those creatures again."
Sakon turned and faced the Konoha group before frowning again.
"Fine. But I want to kill the fat one as well. These pieces of trash are a blight on our home."
The one called Ukon dropped his smirk and stared at his brother, "This isn't our home. Never forget that. We made a vow."
Sakon waved off his brother and cracked his new hand in anticipation. He tapped his new foot on the ground, satisfied that his limbs were in working order before clenching both his fists.
oOoOoOo
"There are two of them?"
Both Chouji and Naruto stood ready to defend the group as they all tried to understand what had happened. After the most obvious question was asked, Shizune shook her head slowly.
"I can't call them back, or even call other tigers to fight these guys. It is considered a horrific breach of honour to leave your comrades alone before a fight is finished. They would come, finish off our enemies, then by their honour they would have to commit seppuku. I couldn't do that to them, they both have families."
Naruto reached into his pack and picked out a seal wrapped kunai, throwing it into the battleaxe crack in the wall behind them, as a precautionary measure. Chouji popped a soldier pill and took a deep breath to calm himself.
"We'll just have to take them out by ourselves then" said Naruto.
He looked down at the pieces of his sword, wishing that there hadn't been a necessity to give the blade to his special clone; he hadn't expected the blade to snap into pieces. It was a shame, he really liked that sword. If he had the time, he planned to go back and find Tenten's father, get him to make him another one.
"How do you want to do this?" asked Ino.
Shizune watched the two Sound shinobi talking to each other, whilst trying to work out a plan of attack. It was unlikely that they could do those multiple attack attacks; if her analysis was correct then it was the other shinobi's arms and legs that were part of the technique. They seemed to be able to enter and leave each other's bodies, which combined with their uncanny regeneration, made them rather unique shinobi.
"Naruto and Chouji will take the front. Ino and I will try to trap them with water techniques."
To her eyes, the two of them were both faster and stronger than any of them, but if her prediction was correct they didn't have a large range of techniques, otherwise they would have used them in their battle against the tigers. Both of the Sound shinobi turned to face the four of them, cracking their knuckles in anticipation.
"We should do this quickly, Sakon. Use Level Two."
"I tried! You don't think I tried? The damn thing has a mind of its own."
Ukon shook his head with a snarl, "Damn Juugo. Should have let Kimimaro die. So it doesn't work at all?"
All of the Sound Four had been having issues with their seals since Orochimaru's death, and Juugo's had only compounded the problems. They had been unable to force the Cursed Seal to recede completely, but having slept for so long Ukon hadn't expected it to be this bad. His eyes were drawn to the kimono wearing kunoichi, a plan of attack already forming in his mind. He didn't need to tell Sakon what he was going to do; they had fought together so much that they could essentially read each other's minds. He clapped his hands together before reaching up a biting his thumbs. While Ukon began writing symbols in blood on the air in front of him, Sakon shot forwards with a kunai in hand, already aiming at Shizune to slash at her head. Naruto was quick to intercept him with his own kunai; the blonde teenager was taken back by the sheer strength in the grey-haired shinobi's attack. It took him both hands to hold the kunai, and his eyes widened as he saw Sakon pull back his free hand and slam his fist into his face. He was sent flying towards the wall behind him with his kunai falling flat on the ground. Just before Naruto hit the wall, a giant hand cushioned his fall, though he still struck the ground hard enough to hurt his back.
Naruto stood up slowly with a grimace, "Thanks Chouji."
"No problems, Naruto. How's your face?"
The blonde shinobi reached up and touched his face a few times, "No worse than usual."
Across from them, Sakon grinned as they all heard Ukon's hands clapping together. Naruto frowned as he caught a glimpse of the symbols hovering around Ukon's body. It took him a moment until he recognised a few, swearing under his breath as he reached out and grabbed the two nearest of his group, unable to reach Shizune but got a hand on Chouji's shoulderplate and Ino's arm. He tried to yell for Shizune to get away, but didn't make it in time as a black field emerged from the ground beneath the Konoha shinobi, rising swiftly before closing in above them. Naruto was able to Hiraishin to the kunai embedded in the wall with his two fellow shinobi, but they could only watch in horror as the black field began to shrink until it barely gave her any room to move.
"Can you help her?" asked Ino, feeling completely helpless.
Both Naruto and Chouji shook their heads, the field was giving off the same chakra signal as the barrier at the entrance, though to her credit Shizune wasn't panicking. She turned around so that she wasn't facing the two Sound shinobi, giving the group a rapid set of hand signals in front of her kimono so that Sakon and Ukon couldn't see them. She was also releasing the seal from her chest, letting the black lines move along her body as her body prepared itself. They watched as black tendrils seemed to cover the small field, striking Shizune hundreds of times all at once. She didn't make a sound, but after a few seconds it didn't matter as the field dissipated and Shizune fell to the ground, a pained expression on her face.
"Shizune-sensei!"
All three of them shot forward to try and help her, Naruto taking position between her and Sakon with dozens of clones appearing around them, while Ino and Chouji tried to see what they had done to the medical Jounin. Sakon fell back to his twin brother, while Ino pulled back Shizune's robe and pressed an ear to her chest. There were no visible wounds on her body, but after a quick analysis Ino determined that she had almost no chakra left.
"Is…is she okay?" asked Chouji nervously, looking away so that he wasn't staring down Shizune's open shirt.
Ino bit at her thumb and quickly wrote a seal onto Shizune's skin, pressing her hands onto the seal and pushing through her chakra.
"Good work, brother" said Sakon, watching with amusement as the blonde tried to save the Jounin's life.
They had only used the technique a few times, but along with near 100% accuracy, it had a near perfect record of fatalities.
"Sakon, try it now."
He turned around to see what his brother was talking about, before a smile widened on his face at his brother's visage. He snarled in pain as he pushed through his chakra into the Cursed Seal, grimacing as it rebelled against his control for a moment before relenting, allowing him to push through to the next stage, like his brother had. The seal marks flared on his skin as it turned to a darkened red colour, while his face became twisted into the form of a demon, with a single horn appearing from his forehead and huge white teeth in his mouth.
"About time this thing did what I wanted it to."
Ino sighed in relief behind the wall of Narutos, taking her hands from Shizune's chest before wiping her forehead. Before he could ask, she gave him her assurances that she was still alive. It was to the medical Jounin's credit that the technique hadn't killed her; it seemed to have been designed to suck out all of the victim's chakra out, until it killed them. With her special seal activated, Shizune's regeneration was at such a high level during the attack that she had survived, though a few more minutes and she would have died if Ino hadn't given her some of her chakra.
"She alright?" asked Naruto, keeping all of his attention focused on the two demon-like shinobi, trying to work out what new problems were about to come their way.
"She'll live, barely. Won't wake up for ages though."
She couldn't see, but Naruto was visibly relieved that she was alive; he blamed himself for not being able to reach her in time. The original Naruto cracked his knuckles as his clones pulled out their own kunai.
"Time for us to go on the attack. I'm not waiting for him to do that again."
oOoOoOo
Naruto observed carefully as the one called Ukon destroyed two more of his clones. It hadn't taken him long to work out that neither of the brothers had long range abilities, and the scary technique that had taken out Shizune required time to set up, which was easily handled by sending lots of Kage Bunshin at him. More clones appeared around Naruto and were sent at the two brothers while Naruto continued to analyse their fighting styles.
"Naruto, your clones are losing."
The Uzumaki survivor ignored Ino's observation, running a scenario in his head before creating two clones and giving them a roll of explosion notes.
"Ino, Chouji, attack exactly how I say."
"Who made you leader?" said Ino, frustrated that the blonde seemed to have taken the initiative when she wanted to do things her way.
Chouji shook his head at her, "Ino, Naruto knows what he is doing. He's got more combat experience than any of us, because of his clones. Just listen to what he has to say."
"That's not the point, Chouji."
They watched as the brothers dispatched the last of the clones.
"This is pretty boring, brother" said Sakon.
They had been using their normal taijutsu techniques to take out the clones, using their superior speed and strength to make it look easy, but they knew their opponent's had more in them than just Kage Bunshin.
"He is calculating our movements. The blonde short one is more cunning than you thought."
Sakon swore when he realised his brother was right, watching as the two newest clones were moving around the sides of the room. Ukon watched as the clones seemed to set themselves up on the sides, and were setting up kunai traps in their hands. It was foolish for the blonde to be doing such a thing in their sight, but as the Sound shinobi looked over at the three Konoha shinobi he noticed that the blonde was staring at the two of them intensely. His brother had been able to send him flying relatively easily, so he wasn't concerned about their fighting power, but unlike his brother he was a more cautious fighter. Both members of Team 10 stood ready as Naruto began readying his plan.
"Naruto, I got to admit that might work."
He smiled as he put his hands together, "You guys always seem so surprised. One of these days you'll stop thinking of me as that stupid kid who failed the Academy Exam three times."
Ino laughed at his comment before putting her hands into her family handseal. She looked through the gap in her handseal and aimed it at her target.
"You two aren't the only fighters in this group. Shinranshin no Jutsu! (Mind Body Disturbance Technique)"
Her chakra rocketed through the air straight into her target's body, causing Sakon's nervous system to be taken over by the Yamanaka heir. She grinned wildly as she made him turn and face his brother, kunai in hand, taking a moment to make sure she had full control before launching Sakon towards his brother.
"Sakon! What the hell are you doing?" exclaimed Ukon, ducking under his brother's strike and jumping backwards.
His brother wasn't even able to shake his head, "I can't seem to control my body! Just try and dodge out of the way!"
Ukon snarled as Sakon's attacks got faster and faster as Ino's control over him got better. The defending Sound shinobi was so distracted by Sakon's attacking body that he didn't see the rain of kunai that fell from the ceiling. He cried out in pain as several kunai struck him in the shoulders, and in that moment he was sent flying back with a punch by Sakon.
"Damnit, Ukon! You need to take out that blonde piece of trash!"
Ukon swore as he picked himself up from the ground, wrenching out the kunai from his shoulders as his wounds healed themselves. He took a moment to glance over at the three Konoha shinobi, noticing that the girl wasn't moving and the fat shinobi was standing over her, while the orange-clad one was setting up more traps.
"These pieces of trash are better than we thought."
He blocked a kick from Sakon and grabbed at his wrist, holding it in place.
"Screw this."
With a pulled back fist, he slammed a punch into Sakon's face, sending his brother spiralling into the wall behind him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the surprised look on the girl's face that he would strike his own brother, but he wasn't willing to wait for her to send Sakon back at him. Pushing off the ground as hard as he could, Ukon shot directly at Ino. Before he could get close though, two giant fists clobbered him in the face, sending him barrelling directly to where his brother fell. The fat shinobi standing next to the girl smiling widely before transforming into the orange-clad teenager. Chouji smiled as well as his arms retracted back to their normal size, their female teammate sighing in relief that their plan had worked.
"You did well Ino" said Chouji with a calm smile.
She almost blushed at the comment, but after a careful look she noticed both of the brothers were slowly getting up from the ground, their wounds healing so quickly that it barely even looked like they had been injured.
"Bah, what does it take to kill these guys?" commented Naruto standing beside his teammates.
They watched as the brothers stretched out their arms as if they had just woken up. Chouji looked over at his teammates, taking a moment before looking back at their enemies. None of their attacks seemed to do enough damage to the Sound shinobi. Even with Naruto's stamina, it looked like they were going to be outlasted. He let out a long sigh; he hadn't expected to have to ever use the technique he was thinking about. Not only was it high risk, but he didn't even know what would happen to him. The Akimichi techniques were designed to use the extra calories stored up in their bodies as a substitute for chakra, that's why the whole clan were fat, at least they were.
"Ino, I'm going to use that. I don't know how long I can hold it, but I need the two of you to back me up in case it fails."
Naruto frowned, "What are you talking about, Chouji?"
The large shinobi ignored Naruto's question and began to mould as much chakra as he could, while running through a short set of handseals. Ino told Naruto to jump back and give Chouji some room, both of them giving him a wide berth. She smiled as they felt the air around Chouji begin to get heavier.
"He only ever talked about it. I never thought he'd actually do it."
"What is he doing?"
"Something…indescribable."
Chouji could feel the changes in his body, but there was less pain than he expected. His cheeks were the first thing to shrink as his chakra output increased dramatically, but when his belly shrank so much that his clothes and armour appeared to hang off him his chakra output exploded, so much that there was a large blue aura surrounding his whole body. He looked down at his thin arms, noticing the incomprehensible chakra that was flowing out of him.
Father used to speak of this, but I never imagined it to be like this. It's less power than with the special red curry pill, but I don't know how to make that, so this will have to do.
Across from him, both Sound shinobi frowned as they felt and saw the dramatic change in the Akimichi heir. Chouji could feel the power flowing through him, but he also knew that it was only going to last for a short time.
"Ukon…I don't think we should take him on so lightly…"
"When he comes, use that."
"Ah, good idea. But look at all that…"
"Just do it, Sakon."
oOoOoOo
The Sound village was built with special materials that made it very difficult to destroy in certain sections, a village underground required certain pre-measures but when Chouji pushed off the ground in a charge towards Sakon and Ukon, the ground underneath him exploded upwards and followed him in his path. He moved almost as fast as the Sound brothers had, in a straight line towards their enemies. In his family scroll it said that the Calorie Control Technique would manifest in a form most suited to the user, but Chouji's technique wasn't completely perfect, but it was the best he could do. As he shot towards the Sound shinobi, he watched as a giant gate emerged from between the two of them, directly in his path. A demonic face covered the gates, while huge red spikes covered the edges.
I can't deviate from my path now. I've only got a little bit of time left.
Deciding on his plan of attack, Chouji pulled back a fist and drew the vast majority of his chakra into it.
You guys better follow up with me. I can open them up to attack.
With a roar, Chouji struck at the gate with his fist, not even bothering to enlarge it as the blow struck at the demon face directly. The gate appeared to lift out of the ground with the strike, slamming straight into the wall behind it, the edges striking both the Sound shinobi as they struggled to get out of the way of the shattering gate. Chouji stole a glance as they picked themselves up from the ground, the chunks of their shoulders taken out by the spikes from the gate having regenerated into dark black spiked plates. He aimed himself at the Sound shinobi with the beads around his neck, moving to attack him as the gate shattered into small pieces on the wall in front of him. Just as he rose a fist to strike at Sakon's fallen form, his blue aura of chakra cut out and he felt like the world had just crashed down on top of him. His knees gave out from underneath him, causing him to hit the ground hard. Chouji was already unconscious by the time his face hit the ground.
Sakon laughed as he stood up over the now-thin shinobi's fallen body. He pulled out a kunai and drew it back to slam it into Chouji's back. Just before the blow fell, he dropped the kunai harmlessly onto the ground, moving his hands to scratch at his throat, but to no avail. He fell to the ground besides Chouji as Naruto pulled out the jagged remains of his sword from the shinobi's back. He pulled out a thrown kunai with a Hiraishin seal wrapped around it from the wall, one that he had thrown while Chouji was doing his charge. He looked down at the body, noticing that the wound was already healing itself. Naruto reached down with a hand, placing it on Sakon's back before pulling back his broken sword.
I really don't want to do this, but it's the only way I can think to stop the regeneration. Bit hard to heal yourself without a head.
He aimed the blade and closed his eyes, not wanting to have the memory of running his blade straight through another person's neck.
"You really shouldn't take your eyes off your enemy, trash."
Naruto frowned and opened his eyes, noticing that the fallen body was no longer under his hand. He hadn't had his eyes closed for more than a second, he figured there was no way he could have moved that fast, even if that wound had been healed instantly. Looking up he tried to find where the voice was coming from, only seeing his two fallen comrades, Ino standing at the opposite side of the room and the deep voiced Sound shinobi standing off to the side, a strange smile on his face. The blonde shinobi stood up and was frantically trying to find where Sakon may have gone.
"You guys are good, but against our abilities you are nothing more than trash."
Naruto could hear the voice right next to his ear, flipping the blade in his hand and flicking it directly to the right side of his head, where he had heard the voice. He heard the sword clash against the wall behind him harmlessly, the voice just laughing at him.
"Haha, that was close. But you are just a little bit off."
Naruto heard the voice in his other ear, causing him to crack his head quickly to see where it might be coming from. To his horror, he saw the Sound shinobi's head poking out of his shoulder, as if part of his own body.
"What the hell?"
Naruto reached out to grab at the demonic-looking face, but a hand shot out of his chest and clenched his wrist, keeping it at Naruto's side.
"You got him?" asked Ukon from across the now-ruined room.
"You take out the girl! I got this piece of trash."
Naruto watched as the other Sound shinobi began moving towards Ino, who was already preparing a water technique to attack him. Trusting that she could handle herself for a moment, Naruto turned back to Sakon's head on his shoulder.
"So you can enter other people's bodies?" he asked, trying to buy time while thinking of a plan.
It was a fair assumption that if he could enter his body, then he could leave it as well.
Sakon laughed again, "My brother and I were considered monsters by our village when we discovered our abilities. We are assassins, and when we enter our target's bodies we can break them down at the cellular level."
"And any damage done to you is done to me?"
"Feeling hopeless already?"
Naruto clenched at the kunai in his free hand, a solution to his problem forming in his mind. He pulled up the kunai and showed it to Sakon.
"What are you going to do with that?" asked the Sound shinobi cautiously, wondering if the blonde had figured out the one downside to the technique.
Naruto grinned wildly before throwing the kunai at the nearby wall. Sakon laughed in triumph, asking the Konoha teenager what the point of that was. With a chuckle, Naruto looked over at the kunai behind Ino, the one he had thrown when he had saved Ino and Chouji from Ukon's field attack.
He turned back to face Sakon on his shoulder, "How good is your stomach?"
With a deep breath, Naruto used Hiraishin to flash to the kunai behind Ino, but before his feet hit the ground he flashed back to the kunai near Chouji's body. He repeated this several times, before reaching his threshold back at the kunai near Chouji, placing both hands on his shoulder as he began throwing up his guts on the ground. He heard the sound of retching behind him, stealing a glance between vomits to see Sakon doing the same, but he was groaning in agony at the same time. Not only that, but his body had returned to its normal form, with the black marks still covering his skin from his forehead. Naruto smiled for a moment, before going back to his retching. With a thump, he saw Sakon collapse into the ground, the displacement from using Hiraishin as an untrained shinobi so many times was too much, having drained what little chakra Sakon had left into healing his stomach, but causing the Sound shinobi to pass out.
Across the battlefield, Ukon found himself being beaten back by Ino's water techniques. She was not the medical shinobi that Sakura was, and not as dedicated as Hinata, but Ino took pride in her aptitude with the water element. While she waved her hands around powerful arms of concentrated water following her movements, forcing Ukon to dodge the water tendrils. The Sound shinobi knew that while he could heal most wounds, drowning was not a fate he wanted to experience. With a glance he saw that Sakon was down and out, from that distance he couldn't see whether his brother was alive or dead.
Damnit Sakon, you should have killed him when you entered his body. You always spent too much time playing around.
He jumped back and snarled at the look on Ino's face. He stood up slowly with a sigh, he was sick of messing around with these children. When Orochimaru died, both he and Sakon had tried to leave, but when their home village rejected them as children, they had no other home to go to.
After this is done, I'll try to take him out of here. Maybe get another village to employ our services. Kabuto isn't going to keep his promise.
He clenched his fists before powering off the floor, aiming himself directly at the girl's position, while clapping his hands together. Ukon didn't have that much stamina, but he fuelled what chakra he had into summoning a large gate behind Ino. The Rashomon gate was smaller than the first one, since it was only him summoning it, but it was sufficient to trap Ino into place. She summoned a thin wall of water to try and buffer him back, but Ukon powered straight through it, causing her to step back straight into the gate. She threw two water attacks directly at him, but Ukon was able to dodge them before appearing in front of her and slamming a fist straight into her chest. He grinned as he activated his bloodline limit ability, the same one that Sakon had used on the blonde teenager. After a few seconds he frowned, wondering why the technique hadn't activated like he was used to. He looked up at the blonde, and swore as she began to collapse under his fist, turning into a water clone that held his wrist tightly with a tendril of water. Emerging from the water around his feet, Ino reached out and placed her hands together before connecting a line of water to Ukon's head.
"Shinkujo no Jutsu!" (Mind Body Destruction Technique)
oOoOoOo
By the time she got to Naruto, he was back on his feet, though he looked less than healthy.
"You are a real freak, you know that?"
The Uzumaki heir laughed painfully, glancing over at the fallen body of the Sound shinobi that she had taken out.
"He went down quickly. Why didn't you do that earlier?"
Ino shook her head slowly, "It's a technique that doesn't kill, just incapacitates. They can be woken up by their companions relatively easily, but he's got no more chakra; neither does the one you took out. Looks like we won this fight."
Naruto looked down at Chouji's fallen body, then over at Shizune behind Ino.
"How are the others?" he asked, hoping that they weren't hurt too bad.
Ino leant down and placed two fingers on her teammate's neck.
After a few moments she smiled and stood back up, "He's going to be fine…" She looked at Chouji's now thin body, amazed at how different he now looked. "…he might need a good feed though."
Naruto chuckled for a moment, and then grimaced at the pain in his stomach. He pocketed the kunai in the wall behind him, and moved to the other wall before retrieving his other kunai. He didn't like the idea of leaving the Hiraishin seals behind, the likelihood of the seals being disrupted and the risk for him if he tried to Hiraishin to them was too great.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Naruto.
Ino looked over at the ruined room with a sigh, noticing that the field around the entrance was gone, "Our job was already done before we came in here. We should retreat back to Neji's position outside, and heal Shizune and Chouji fully."
Her companion looked at their two fallen companions, "Okay. But I'll take Shizune-neechan."
Ino simply had to stare at him for a moment before he put up his hands in defeat.
"Alright fine, I'll take Chouji. But you owe me for this."
She stared at him again for a moment.
"Fine, we'll be even."
Another stare.
"Fine, I'll owe you, and will do more things for you."
Ino nodded with a smile, moving to help Shizune onto her shoulders. She hadn't expected Naruto to cave so easily, though he had become less argumentative with his progressing relationship with the Hyuuga heiress.
"Let's get going" said Naruto, the thin Akimichi heir held between two Kage Bunshin.
She nodded in agreement, moulding a small amount of chakra to help ease the weight of the medical Jounin.
"I need a bath after this."
Author's Note:
I admit, the first bit of this chapter was an excuse for me to write an idealised happy ending scenario. Sorry it was so long, I got a bit caught up in it. Wasn't it convenient how it sat in the story? Hehe. A bit of writer's indulgence. Two fights down, two to go.
Please review and tell me what you think. I try to reply to each review, and believe me I read them all. Tell me what can be improved, what you liked, what you didn't, everything. I'm a writer so I'm always open to criticism.