The Wanderers
Chapter 65 – Searching for Sasuke
A/N: I still can't believe this story has 600 reviews. That simply blows my mind, you guys are awesome. I'm writing this story for you guys, and the responses are exactly what I want in feedback.
A/N2: I'm changing up the paragraph break too, since the format that fanfiction does has always been bugging me. So it'll still be oOoOoOo, but now it'll be more obvious.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, shinobi besides Kakashi would run out of chakra.
***Previously-On***
On their way to meeting Neji, Naruto and Hinata were greeted by their old friend Magnus, who cryptically helped them find where to go. Arriving at Otogakure, the two of them were very impressed with what they saw, though they were more surprised that Neji had a beautiful wife and three small children. After several discussions and meetings with old friends, Naruto and Hinata decided that they wanted to travel to Iwagakure to help Sasuke in his role in the Iwagakure Rebellion.
***End Summary***
A pair of Iwa shinobi dropped to their knees and clapped their hands together in synchronisation, "Doton: Konran Doumu!" (Earth Element: Chaos Domes)
The earth in front of them exploded upwards and shot forward towards their targets, with the Iwa shinobi grimacing under the weight of the chakra demand of the technique. The technique crashed across the rocky terrain like waves on an ocean, but their prey was too quick in the air to be caught.
One of the Iwa shinobi struggled under her failing chakra, and that falter killed her as a sharp wooden spike shot through the air from one of their targets straight into her throat. The spike retracted quickly as she fell to the ground, with her companion jumping at the attack but he was subsequently caught in a collection of fireballs that killed him almost as quickly as his companion.
Their targets slowly approached the bodies with caution; they had to make sure they were dead. It wouldn't be the first time they'd been faked out on, but upon quick inspection the skirmish was over.
"I would've gotten the second one," said Fiore, scratching at her teeth with her wooden pick. "You didn't have to interfere like that."
Her Uchiha companion grunted a response and cracked his neck loudly, "I'm sure. How many is that now?"
"Fifteen. Think they've gotten the message not to mess with us yet?"
Sasuke breathed out for a moment before taking an account of their surroundings. "Seems likely. I doubt they would be in a position to pursue us so easily after we killed their scouts."
"Why did they attack us again? It sounded like you exchanged some words with them before they started hurling rocks at us."
The Uchiha shinobi shrugged dismissively, "They were taking too long. It seemed easier to just provoke them and get it over and done with."
"You should really work on your patience," said Fiore, approaching him from the side and punching him lightly in the shoulder. "Are we going to head back? I'm starving."
Placing his hands into a handseal, Sasuke shot her a suspicious look, "You should never lecture me on patience."
Fiore snorted and went to retort, but hesitated as she saw the expression on his face shift. Her partner blinked and his eyes turned to their red Sharingan state, the young Uchiha's eyes widening as he glanced around the nearby area. His face screwed up in concentration before swearing silently and running through a quick set of handseals.
"Something wrong?" asked his partner quietly, knowing Sasuke wasn't the type to panic unnecessarily.
Sasuke bit at his thumb and placed a hand on the ground, "We have to run. Right now."
"What? Why?"
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" A large cloud of smoke appeared in front of the two of them, dissipating as great feathered wings expanded outwards and a loud shriek echoed throughout the area. A large hawk stared down at the two of them through piercing eyes before bowing its head respectfully to its summoner.
The Uchiha shinobi nodded back before turning his red-eyed gaze to his partner, "Get on the hawk, Fiore."
The Cascading Flow warrior scoffed and pulled out her wood, "No way, I can't stand flying that way. I'll take my own way, thank you very much."
Sasuke went to chastise her stubbornness, but his eyes caught the chakra output of a technique that forced him to jump in front of the young woman and stretch out his arms. A massive purple skeleton drenched in violet flames emerged around the two of them just as dozens of large boulders came screaming towards the two of them and the hawk. The large bird was clever enough to move behind Sasuke's technique as the boulders smashed into the skeleton's body. They dissipated with only the slightest indication of damage on the purple skeleton, while Sasuke concentrated heavily on maintaining the technique. His eyes had changed to three intersecting ellipsis with a pinwheel at the centre, giving him a terrifying visage.
"How long until the next volley?" shouted Fiore over the thundering sound of the boulders striking the ground.
Sasuke blinked and his eyes changed back to their regular Sharingan state, the purple skeleton collapsing in on itself before dissipating completely. "Not long enough," he said in the middle of a leap onto the back of the hawk he'd summoned. "Get on the damn bird, or I'm leaving you behind."
Fiore spat out a string of expletives and jumped on the hawk's feathered back, her wood sitting in her hair balled up behind her head. She didn't even try to keep herself steady normally, clasping her arms around Sasuke's waist and holding him as tightly as possible.
Sasuke was concentrating too heavily on giving orders to his hawk as they took to the air to give her action any reasonable notice. The large bird took to the air with a single flap of its wings, a second volley of massive boulders just landing underneath its body.
The hawk banked rapidly and began flying at high speed, swooping down at several Iwa shinobi who were trying to reactivate their techniques. Its talons tore them to pieces in a single swipe before flying off into the distant sky.
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An Iwa shinobi came up to his commander and knelt down on one knee, his hand over his chest in a salute. "The Cascading Flow rebels have fled the area. Do we pursue?"
His commander slowly rose to her feet and let the rubble in her hands fall to the ground. She turned to regard her subordinate, taking no noticing of the grimace at her expression. "Our orders are clear. Those two are top priority, without them the rebellion will suffer greatly on the field."
"Yes madam," said the Iwa shinobi, bowing his head before standing back up and moving back into line.
Kurotsuchi glanced over at the shinobi under her command through her single good eye. A part of her hated being assigned to such a task, but the rebellion had torn the country apart and she had the opportunity to cut out its heart before it could consume their village as well.
"Move out! I want those two caught before the day's end!"
At her command the force of two hundred Iwa shinobi moved at top speed after the large hawk, determined to tear its riders off and drag them back to the village. Kurotsuchi pulled her gloves back onto her hands and fuelled chakra into her legs to forward herself at the same pace as her subordinates.
She would do her duty until she could do no more.
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Sasuke peeked over his hawk's side, sighing loudly at what he saw. They were a reasonable distance away, but after flying for several hours they hadn't been able to shake off their pursuers. He didn't have the sight of a Byakugan, but his Sharingan was able to give him a reasonable view of who their pursuers were. He didn't see any masks indicating any Iwa ANBU, but that didn't mean much to him. The fact that the force of that size would keep up with one of his fastest hawks was telling enough.
On the hawk's back behind him, Fiore slept soundlessly. It had been difficult enough to get her to calm down at first, but Sasuke had pointed out that she needed to rest far more than he did. He'd lied, but the young woman knew that when they landed the fight would be renewed and he'd promised to tie her to the hawk's back so that she didn't fall off.
He'd lied about that too. She was far too trusting sometimes.
The hawk let out a loud caw and Sasuke tapped it on the back in response. It began to fly closer towards the ground as Sasuke reached over and unceremoniously kicked Fiore in the side. The young woman woke up immediately and began to stand up rubbing her eyes.
The moment she saw they were still flying she dropped back down and spread out her hands to grab at the feathers frantically, glaring at her companion through furious violet eyes. "You said you would tie me down!"
"We're landing," said Sasuke, ignoring her protests as he eyed their pursuers. "We weren't able to shake them."
Despite her concerns about the hawk, Fiore was able to push herself up, clutching at his arm to steady himself. "How many?"
"Too many for the two of us to handle." The hawk flapped its wings rapidly as they approached the ground, its talons scrapping against the dry rocks before landing properly.
Sasuke and Fiore both jumped off its back, with the wood-user pulling away from Sasuke as if he was diseased, patting herself down to check that he hadn't done anything to her while she slept.
"I'll never understand why you hate flying that way. You do crazier things when you flit about on that piece of wood of yours."
"I can control that," replied Fiore with a tsk, flicking her wrist to grab her wood from her hair. "How long?"
Sasuke used his Sharingan to check the area around them, finding the area was not a good place for a stand at all. They had landed on the best place for the hawk to land, a wide flat area of stone with no cover whatsoever. He turned to his hawk and dismissed it, but the large bird let out a large shrill sound and stared down at its summoner with avian eyes.
The Uchiha shinobi smirked for a moment before turning back to the distance where the first elements of the Iwa pursuers appeared in view. "You know what to do?"
Rubbing at her stiff neck sorely, Fiore opened and closed her eyes quickly to try and wake herself up more. "Yeah. Like we talked about."
The two of them stood in front of the giant brown hawk as the Iwagakure shinobi moved towards them. It was clear the Iwa force considered them a high priority, which caused the two of them to smirk proudly.
"Who do you think they'll call on first?" asked Fiore, her wood having formed in its staff form in her hands. "They'll have to talk before attacking; otherwise they won't be sure we are who we are."
"Well you're the terrorist, so they'll probably want you more than me," said Sasuke. He reached to his back and produced a long katana, brandishing it expertly. "You're far more valuable to them as a hostage."
"Well I don't intend to let that happen. I've been in a prison before, it didn't stick."
"I won't let them take you either," said Sasuke confidently. "Your mother would kill me."
"Not before I do," said Fiore cheerfully.
The two of them watched as the Iwa shinobi came to a stop a short distance away, an intimidating show of force if there ever was one. They could clearly see the hatred on the shinobi's faces, though there was a mixture of fear as well. Between the two of them they had accounted for a vast majority of the deaths of the Iwa shinobi, though neither took pleasure in such acts.
Well, not much.
A female shinobi stepped forward from within the Iwa ranks, one that caused both of them to struggle not to wince at her disfigured appearance. Her single eye scanned the two of them quickly before finally resting on Sasuke's face.
"I know you…" she said with a strange expression on her face. "You were at the Chuunin Exams…"
Sasuke raised an eyebrow towards their opposition, "I don't know you." He turned to his partner, "I guess you win."
"You can have her," said the Cascading Flow warrior with a grimace. "I'm sure your children would be beautiful."
Kurotsuchi ignored Fiore's jab at her appearance and stood with her back straight. "The two of you aren't escaping anymore. You'll pay for the lives you took this day."
"I take the hundred on the left, you take the hundred on the right," whispered Fiore with amusement in her voice.
"Bet you I'll take more than you do," whispered Sasuke back. "Hell, I bet the hawk takes out more."
"Enough!" shouted the Iwa kunoichi. "You are outnumbered and outmatched. If you surrender, we won't kill you."
Sasuke looked over at Fiore for a moment before turning his red eyes to Kurotsuchi with a confident expression. "I was just about to say the same thing to you."
Kurotsuchi snarled and turned to her force, "Take them!"
The Iwa shinobi collectively shouted their approval and charged forward towards the two warriors. Dozens began completing ninjutsu techniques, while others readied weapons and moved around to flank them.
"I guess that ends negotiations," said Fiore. "You ready?" she asked quietly to her partner.
Sasuke didn't respond, clapping his hands together and facing them to each side. His chakra exploded outwards in a whirlwind motion.
"Katon: Enkou Kyousei Senpuu." (Fire Element: Great Fire Whirlwind)
The Iwa shinobi in close proximity were buffeted back as a massive wind force exploded outwards and lit up with bright blue and orange flames. It enveloped the two of them and the hawk they'd flown on with ease, reaching scores of metres into the air.
Kurotsuchi stared up at the raging whirlwind of fire, her years of training recognising that it was purely a defensive measure, one that likely would not last long. She placed her hands into a handseal and motioned for the others to follow suit.
She placed a hand to her lips, "Suiton: Mizurappa!" (Water Element: Water Trumpet)
Over thirty Iwa shinobi spat water directly into the flames, but despite their best efforts the flames refused to be put out. After several moments she released her technique, causing the others to do the same. She stood back several steps and looked up at the height of the fire whirlwind.
Something about this smelled wrong to her.
She turned to warn her forces to be on their guard, but as she did so the air began to fill with arrows from every direction.
Kurotsuchi barely had enough time to spit out a barrier of earth from her mouth to cover the shinobi around her. She and the others nearby all ducked underneath the rock barrier and held their arms over their heads; all they could do was wait until the volley was over.
Numerous Iwa shinobi were unable to defend themselves from the barrage, arrows taking them in the neck and chest with deadly accuracy. Eventually after almost a minute the arrows stopped falling, with the remaining Iwa shinobi recovering from their defensive formations and taking in the situation around them.
Their village was known for their defensive techniques, but a full third of their force had been killed or mortally injured in the ambush. Kurotsuchi let out a string of expletives and barked out orders for them to tighten up their formation. They couldn't see the archers that had attacked them, but their leader noted that the fire whirlwind their targets had hid in had begun to dissipate. On instinct she glanced up at the sky, initially to see if that's where the attackers had come from, but instead she noticed the large hawk they'd seen earlier flying above them with their two targets sitting on top without a scratch on them.
Sasuke glanced down at the Iwa force, sighing for a moment before reaching into a pocket and handing his female partner a couple of bills. "I knew I shouldn't have bet the upper."
Fiore grinned and shoved the bills into her pocket, "I did warn you, no way they would lose more than a quarter." She indicated to the force below; the Iwa shinobi were already rallying and preparing to counterattack. "We should attack before they regroup."
Her partner once again ignored her as he directed the hawk to fly them away from their enemies. With his hands together in a handseal, Sasuke dropped off of his summon's back and placed his hands on the ground beneath.
"That won't be necessary," came a familiar voice behind the Uchiha shinobi.
"You don't command me here," said Sasuke with a serious expression. Nevertheless he withdrew his hands as Fiore carefully landed on the ground beside him, shooting the hawk a suspicious glare before turning to the speaker.
"You guys took your time," she said curtly, though she was thankful that he was here. "We were beginning to think we'd landed in the wrong area."
The speaker stepped forward with his hands in a complex handseal, "The two of you are fatigued, we will take care of the rest."
Sasuke went to retort, but as he looked into the speaker's face it brought the same chill down his spine as it did the first time he saw it. Muttering obscenities he moved behind the speaker, glaring daggers into the fan symbol on the back of his cloak.
His partner chuckled at the scene and tapped him on the shoulder cheerfully. "Always nice to see at least one of the two of you has stones left in you."
Sasuke turned his hateful gaze to the violet eyed woman, but she paid no heed to it as the battle began to recommence.
Over a hundred Cascading Flow warriors revealed themselves from hiding places surrounding the Iwa shinobi, either from fake rocks or pits from which to fire arrows from. The Iwa shinobi immediately moved to retaliate against their aggressors, but almost as a single unit paused in shock as the leader of the ambush stepped into full view.
He wore similar clothing to Sasuke, with a longer cloak due to his seniority in their diminished clan. It didn't appear that he had any weapons on his person, but the truly intimidating nature of Itachi's visage was his face.
Across his eyes was a pitch black cloth tied behind his dark hair, with two fiery green orbs underneath where his eyes would've been. His fiery eyes glared down at the Iwa shinobi with an express of despair that was overwhelming.
"It's Demon-Eyes…"
"No way…"
"I thought he was a myth…"
The mutterings of the shinobi were more damaging than the Cascading Flow warriors could have hoped, though the displeasure on Sasuke's face was obvious. He rolled his eyes and stared up into the sky.
Several of the Iwa shinobi put their hands together and tried to dispel what they thought was a genjutsu, but the image did not change as Itachi slowly raised a hand towards the air.
In a chakra-enhanced demonic voice, the elder Uchiha gave the command, his opponents unable to sense the reluctance he felt in his chest.
"Slaughter them."
Under regular circumstances the Iwa shinobi would've had the advantage in battle, even with the ambush scenario. However the Cascading Flow warriors had become very proficient at fighting against shinobi and with Itachi at the fore it was much more one-sided.
The air above the Iwa shinobi darkened rapidly, black clouds forming in the sky before balls of green fire began to fall towards their positions. Despite their training and experience, many of the Iwa shinobi panicked and tried to flee the area, only to be cut down by clouds of arrows with deadly accuracy.
Several of the more reasoned shinobi tried to send slabs of rock towards the green fireballs to stave them off, but to their dismay it appeared as though the fireballs obliterated them without taking any damage. A few Iwa shinobi who weren't concentrating on the aerial attack tried to break through and attack the archers directly, but a large number of Cascading Flow warriors behind the archers shot forward and cut them down through superior numbers and speed before they could complete any techniques.
The battle was over in less than two minutes.
Once he saw that there were no more shinobi on their feet and presenting a threat to them, Itachi dissipated his genjutsu and the sky cleared above the battlefield. The survivors looked around the battlefield with confusion in their expressions; there were no impact sites from where the fireballs had struck the ground.
Fiore turned to one of the Cascading Flow warriors at their side, "Scour the area, we don't want any of them escaping back to their village."
"They are all here," said Itachi in his regular voice. He didn't turn to regard any of his companions, merely stepping forward towards the mass of defeated Iwa shinobi. Sasuke and Fiore followed quickly behind him, their weapons out and ready in case there were several Iwa shinobi that were lying in wait to attack them.
Of the two hundred Iwa shinobi that had chased after Sasuke and Fiore, barely a handful had survived the ambush and the Cascading Flow warriors were ruthless as they moved among the bodies and continued their bloody work. Most of the ambushers were civilians who had been recruited for the rebellion and disliked the fact that they had to do it, but many of them relished the opportunity to enact revenge against their oppressors.
Itachi, Fiore and Sasuke came across a kneeling Iwa shinobi, her body pierced by many arrows, though she still had the strength to glare up at her murderers with a hateful eye.
"She's the leader," said Fiore with an accusing finger. "Should we take her prisoner?"
Itachi shook his head, "They don't do prisoner swaps, you know that. Any prisoners they have are already dead. The Tsuchikage doesn't value his shinobi's lives as much as he should."
"Well we can't leave her here," pointed out Sasuke. "She'd likely survive those wounds and report back on today's events."
His partner stepped forward as her wood formed into a sharp sword, "I'll take care of her. She's the one who killed Nia." Her expression spoke of her anger, one that Sasuke recognised all too well.
However neither he nor Itachi stopped her as she stabbed her wood sword into Kurotsuchi's chest. If she was surprised by the attack she gave no indication as the light began to dim from her remaining eye.
She muttered a single word before the life completely drained from her and she fell to the ground the same as her subordinates.
"Did you hear that?" asked Sasuke, leaning forward to Fiore's side.
The young woman shrugged in response, "I couldn't make it out."
"She said 'Rina'," observed Itachi a short distance away, his back to the pair of them.
Fiore frowned as she stood back up on her feet and saw the Cascading Flow members began to go through the bodies for weapons and supplies. "That sounds familiar. Isn't there a doctor back at base…"
"The green haired girl," agreed Sasuke. "Did she have some kind of connection to her?"
"We'll find out when we return." Itachi placed his hands in his sleeves and turned to walk away from the scene. "Elika will want to know how the battle faired. We should return to Cascading Flow."
Turning to his young wife on the ground below, Naruto shrugged in response to her question. "This is the third one. Something is very wrong here."
Hinata nodded and cancelled her Byakugan quickly to preserve chakra, "Completely empty, but no signs of battle or bodies."
The two of them continued their search around the empty village. They searched through a number of houses for supplies, but failed to find anything worth taking. It had been a week since they'd left Neji's village, but they hadn't seen a single sign of human life at all. They'd made some considerable distance into the Land of Earth, though neither had any clue where the Iwagakure village even was.
"What do you want to do now?" asked Hinata, dropping a plastic pot onto the dirt beneath her feet.
Her husband looked around the empty village one last time before turning back to the dark haired girl, "Well if we can't find any villagers, we need to find someone from either side of the conflict. We came here to stop the fighting anyway."
Running a hand through her hair and sighing as she realised how much dust had gotten in since the last time she washed it. "We'll have to move quickly then. We don't know how long we've got until they are forced into a conflict that ends the rebellion."
Naruto jumped down off of the roof he'd been standing on and kissed his wife on the cheek affectionately, "Smart and beautiful. A perfect combination."
"Oh be quiet you," said his wife back with the slightest hint of a blush on her cheeks. "We should get going before we lose the rest of the day."
Naruto nodded with a look of regret before the two of them disappeared at a relatively high speed.
There were still many places left to search before they found Sasuke and his comrades.
Naruto sniffed at the damp air suspiciously, "Something feels off."
"I'm sure it's nothing," said Hinata at his side with a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "You've been jumpy for days."
The blonde shinobi sighed before flashing his wife a smile, "Of course. I just wish we knew where we were going." He felt at his pack on his shoulder, "We've got about a day's worth of food left."
"I'm sure we'll be fine."
The two of them began climbing a wide ridge of sheer rock, the two of them taking a moment to look out over the rocky plains before leaping down before. Hinata used her spiritual energy to slow their descent before they lightly touched down on the ground. Naruto marvelled at her control of the technique, the last time he had tried to do the same he had nearly sliced his feet off in the process.
He went to kiss her on the cheek in thanks, but as he tried he froze still. Hinata immediately knew something was wrong and with a flick of her wrists she grasped two kunai and turned to face where her husband was staring.
Underneath the rock cliff were a score of dark blue soldiers with bows pointed directly at them. They appeared ready to fire at a moment's notice, and a woman with dark brown hair and scars across her face drew a short sword from her side.
"Lower your weapons or we will kill you," she said quickly, her violet eyes showing them how serious her threat was. "Do it now!"
Hinata didn't relinquish her kunai, deciding rather to lean her head slightly to her husband, "Naruto…why haven't you teleported us out yet?"
"I've been trying," he whispered back, a kunai appearing in his hand. "Something is blocking my Hiraishin."
The female leader of the group stepped forward and brandished her weapon, "Drop your weapons, shinobi! Your disguises do not fool us!"
"Disguises?" Both of them were quite puzzled by the accusation, but weren't sure whether they should attack regardless or surrender to them. Naruto shot the leader a suspicious look, "Who are you? You lot clearly aren't shinobi."
The scarred woman turned to her soldiers, "Fire."
Naruto swore under his breath and transposed himself between the archers and Hinata, even as his young wife jumped backwards as fast as she could. With his single kunai he was able to block several of the arrows fired at him, but two slammed into his legs with great velocity, while another one caught him in the stomach. The force of being shot drove him into the ground as pain shot through his entire body. He tried to use one of the pain supressing techniques that Hinata had taught him, but like before the technique refused to work.
With blood flowing through his teeth, Naruto brought his head up to see Hinata charging forward like a furious angel, striking left and right at the archers and blowing them away with bursts of wind spiritual energy. He tried to push himself up, but the arrows and the pain kept him on the ground, he found himself slowly drifting into unconsciousness.
What the hell…I've been shot before but not like…wait…shit…
He tried to reach for one of the arrows in his chest, but a boot slammed into his temple and knocked him out before he could confirm his suspicions.
Hinata slammed an open palm into the chin of an archer before turning to see the female leader of the group kick Naruto in the head to knock him out. The Hyuuga kunoichi was not normally prone to episodes of fury like her husband, but seeing him assaulted so brought out her primal side.
With her hands covered in spiritual energy in a manner similar to her husband's fighting technique, Hinata shot forward to attack the enemy leader. She ignored the remaining archers that she hadn't knocked out as her hair flailed wildly behind her head. Her eyes remained a pure white as she didn't even attempt to use her Byakugan, all her being was focused on this one woman and taking her apart in every manner possible.
She shot one of her hands forward to pierce through the woman's chest with a fine blade of wind, but her opponent demonstrated a speed the kunoichi hadn't expected and moved around to her side, swinging her sword to take Hinata's arm at the elbow.
However Hinata had found against swords thousands of times over the past few years and knew every trick in the book, and several that weren't, on how to avoid such a strike. Dropping her weight to her other side, she rolled out of the way and hopped back up onto her feet, collecting the two kunai she'd dropped when she'd jumped back earlier and flicking them at her opponent.
As she suspected, the leader was able to block the strikes without effort. The scarred woman took a moment to glance at the soldier's Hinata had taken out, though it was only for a split second before the young shinobi charged forward again with clear killer intent in her eyes.
The woman easily evaded Hinata's attacks, sheathing her sword in the process and using her superior speed to manipulate the dark haired girl away from her husband's unconscious body. Hinata didn't even notice as she kept trying to push through the woman's defences but found her far too slippery to be caught.
Eventually Hinata found herself with her back to the archers beneath the ridge without her noticing. The woman didn't hesitate in calling for them to fire on her immediately, though Hinata was able to bring up a shield of air to block the arrows that threatened to take her in the back.
Unlike the first volley, the archers fired their arrows in waves, forcing Hinata to concentrate her efforts on defence. This allowed the leader to shoot forward and slam her closed fists into Hinata's head, causing her to crumple into the ground. Her attack went through the young shinobi's wind shield like it wasn't there, though the enemy leader did suffer numerous cuts on her hands and arms as a result of her attack.
The leader looked down at the young girl's unconscious body with a mixture of confusion and admiration; it had been a long time since she'd seen such fight in an enemy's eyes. She turned to one of her soldiers, "We're leaving this position."
One of the archers shouldered his bow and approached her, "How was she able to attack like that? I thought the field was meant to block their chakra abilities."
Glancing over at the markers they'd laid out for their trap, Elika sighed loudly and ordered her soldiers to pack them back up. They'd been expecting a small Iwa patrol, but they'd likely been diverted elsewhere and she couldn't tarry here much longer.
"What do you want us to do with these two?" asked one of her soldiers.
Elika knelt down beside one of her knocked out soldiers, taking his pulse before a confusion look came over her face. "She didn't kill any of them…"
She turned back to the soldier, "Wake the injured, we're taking the two of them with us. Something doesn't feel right about these two...they don't seem like regular shinobi."
Reaching down to heft Hinata up over her shoulder with ease, Elika looked down at Naruto's unconscious body for a moment, remarking at how he'd been able to deflect so many killing shots and still survive with very minor injuries. If they hadn't laid down a dampening field, she wouldn't have liked to meet them in battle without more backup.
Elika signalled to her soldiers. "To Cascading Flow!"
"Something on your mind, brother?"
Itachi turned his face to his younger brother, what was meant to be a reassuring gesture merely served to remind Sasuke of how much Itachi had changed since he'd rescued him from the Quiraji. "To what do you speak?"
The younger Uchiha gave his brother a knowing look, "Look, you might have glowing demon eyes, but I can tell when something is bothering you."
Itachi was not expressive by nature, but there were minor body language quirks that Sasuke was well aware of. What might appear to be simple facial expressions spoke volumes to the young Uchiha.
"This is not how I thought this would be, little brother. The things we have to do…Mother would be ashamed."
Sasuke stepped in front of Itachi and placed a hand on his chest to stop him, "We have both done much worse for the right cause. It isn't as if we are killing innocents."
"You cannot be the judge of who is innocent and who is not," replied Itachi cryptically. "Death for the sake of death means nothing."
"You're unsure of their motivations? I thought we had convinced you."
"Of their cause, yes." Itachi motioned to the Cascading Flow warriors that walked around them. "But these are simple people who should not be doing such things. Many of them are farmers, bakers and such. There should be other means of resolving this conflict."
"Well I'm open to suggestions," said the younger Uchiha. "But considering how the battles have been faring, you may wish to think quickly."
Itachi made no comment in return, though his body language spoke of his displeasure at his younger brother's attitude. He would often warn of the danger of hubris, but some lessons were better learnt on their own.
A warrior came up to Itachi and asked him a question that drew him away from Sasuke, causing the younger Uchiha to nod in understanding and move to the side of their group. After several minutes he noticed Fiore bounding up towards him with a strange glow about her.
Not that he'd ever tell her that, she didn't need the ego boost at all.
"Something I can help you with?" he asked as she came to his side.
The violet eyed girl pulled him to the side of the group with the same enthusiasm that she'd shown the first time they'd fought. She whispered something into his ear that caused him to do a double-take and pull her further out of earshot of the rest of the Cascading Flow warriors.
"Run that by me one more time?" he said with no lack of disquiet in his voice.
Fiore stared straight into his eyes with a frightening amount of confidence, "As I said, when we get back home, we should have sex."
The Uchiha shinobi frown deepened, "No."
"Just no? No explanation or reason? Nothing at all?"
Sasuke thought about it for a moment before turning his back to her, "I'm going back to the group."
Fiore reached out and grabbed him by the shoulder, forcibly pinning him to a nearby tree. She clenched a fist and threatened to dive it into his face.
"Why the hell won't you take this seriously?! Would it kill you to show an ounce of emotion for one second?! We spend every moment together and you've still got nothing?!"
Sasuke hesitated for just a split second, but Fiore saw it. In her anger she drove her fist into his chest, but it barely inflicted any damage on the powerful shinobi, her heart wasn't really in it.
"Do these last three years mean nothing to you?" she muttered quietly, her eyes staring down at the ground in defeat. "I should have known you didn't care."
At that, something in Sasuke snapped. He reached forward with his hands and gripped her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him directly.
"Of course I care about you, you stupid woman! Do you seriously think I would do half the things we have if I didn't feel something?!"
"Then why won't you make a move?!"
"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU!"
He hadn't meant to, but Sasuke had run his voice coarse at the proclamation. The two of them locked eyes, with neither conceding the silence. An entire conversation occurred between Sasuke's black eyes and Fiore's violet orbs, yet neither could quite understand what the other was trying to say.
Eventually Sasuke was the first to break the eye contact, his gaze drifting off to the side as he showed hesitation for the second time in as many minutes. He let go of her shoulders and fell back against the tree.
"I've lost almost everyone…my friends…family…if we get any closer I'll lose you too." His eyes looked back up at her with an expression that threatened to make the hard-bitten warrior tear up, "I'm not strong enough…not strong enough for that…"
Fiore took a step back to give a bit of space, suddenly every interaction she'd had with the Uchiha made perfect sense. The two of them had hinted to each other over the years and the gossiping among their companions had been rife with rumours, but only now did she truly understand him.
With affectionate deliberate movements she gently placed her hands around his neck, noticing that he didn't shy away from the touch as she feared he might. With a sad smile on her face, she used a hand to push his face back up to look at her directly.
"And you think I am?" she said gently. "I'm…terrified…every day." She took a long breath to calm down the butterflies in her stomach, but they proved too resilient. "Every time I see you, I get that little bit of hope in my chest that everything will be okay."
Both of their gazes fell downwards as Fiore leaned her forehead into his. "We could die at any moment. I don't want to waste the chance to know you…before that happens."
Sasuke breathed out heavily, he could feel her breath on his face as surely as a harsh breeze. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling by any measure, though the logical part of his mind was telling him to retreat and re-examine the situation.
"I didn't know you felt that way," he said finally, surrendering to the fact that it wasn't something he could keep putting to one side.
Fiore chuckled lightly and placed a hand on the side of his face, feeling at the rough skin of his cheek and neck. "I'm sorry for pushing you. I should've been able to tell…why you had been backing off."
Sasuke gave her a rare smile and shook his head slightly, though not enough for her to need to remove her hand, "I should've taken the risk. I wanted to…I was just…"
"A little girl in a short skirt," said Fiore with a smirk.
Her Uchiha partner dropped his smile at her jab, but his eyes expression the affection he'd been struggling to convey. "You are an…aggravating woman, you know that?"
The tanned skinned girl removed her hand from his face and tapped him lightly on the chest, "Only because I get away with it. So…not to press the issue or anything…"
Sasuke breathed out a sigh of exasperation; she was relentless when she wanted something. It was as if she hadn't understood anything in the past few minutes. "I think I do what to try."
His partner's face lit up immediately at that, "Fantastic! You have no idea how long I've been waiting for you to say that."
She turned around and flicked the wood spike out of her short brown hair and tossed it into the air, gesturing in the air as if moulding the element to a particular shape, though he knew she didn't require any hand movements to form it into whatever shape she required.
Sasuke's eyes began to narrow as he realised the wood was forming into a small enclosure around the two of them, including the small tree at his back, with a frightening amount of detail. There were no windows as far as he could tell, but that appeared to be part of the design as his partner turned back to him with a look that sent a shiver down his spine.
"Surely…you don't mean right now…"
An evil smirk came across Fiore's face as she undid the zipper of her jacket and stepped forward as deliberately as she could, "You aren't leaving here until we work this out. Completely and thoroughly."
Sasuke found himself staring at her without shame as she began to undress, any reasonable thoughts fleeing from his mind as she revealed her tanned skin body underneath each piece of clothing.
What…what am I meant to do now?
Inwardly Sasuke cursed his brother for this particular void in his training. He always fought better when he was prepared and ready. This was something beyond even his consideration expertise.
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Further down the road, at the head of the hundred Cascading Flow warriors that were retreating back to their home base, Uchiha Itachi expressed the tiniest of smirks.
As they approached the first elements of defence surrounding the main Cascading Flow building, the group's leaders all put up their hands at once to stop the ambushing force from proceeding.
"Where are the sentries?" asked a concerned Fiore. She frowned and squinted to try and get a better look at the surroundings. The air above them had clouded over as the sun had set, yet the fires that usually littered the landscape were nowhere to be found.
Sasuke began signalling to their warriors to spread out in search formations before turning back to his partner and brother, "I'll lead a small group inside and see what the problem is."
Fiore nodded in agreement and went to step forward, but Itachi shook his head slightly. "We'll all go. Goro can handle things here while we scout it out." He turned his demonic gaze towards a large man who had a large axe on his back. "Hold your position here. Don't press forwards unless you receive the signal that the building has been compromised and we need your assistance."
He nodded in agreement and began shouting orders around the army while Sasuke and Fiore picked a select handful of warriors to accompany them. They hoped they weren't too late.
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Naruto groaned loudly as he awoke to consciousness. His eyes slowly opened but were quickly clenched as he felt a sharp pain in his chest. Feeling down with his hand, he could no longer feel an arrow protruding out of his flesh, but his hand still came back sticky with blood.
"Hinata? You there?" he called out, opening his eyes again and trying to make sense of the blurry surroundings.
"I'm over here," came her voice a short distance away.
Naruto tried to sit up and failed, feeling cold stone underneath his fingers as he shifted so that he could see his surroundings. He sat within a small prison cell with his hands bound by a strange pair of handcuffs. On first inspection he discovered they were blocking any attempts he made to mould chakra.
"Hinata? I can't see you, where are you?"
"I'm in the opposite cell," said his young wife, allowing Naruto to divert his gaze towards her voice. He was barely able to make her out as she sat enveloped in darkness, but all his pain and exhaustion was forgotten as he shot straight up and clenched his hands on the bars of his cell.
Hinata sat with her hands and legs bound by the same handcuffs as he was. She looked like she had been beaten severely, her face was covered in blood and her hair was ragged and frayed. He couldn't quite make out her eyes, but merely judging by her body language Naruto could tell how she was feeling.
"My love…what did they do to you?"
"Nothing, it's nothing," said Hinata slowly. "I can't break my bonds…can you?"
Naruto looked down at his handcuffs and strained against them, they cut into his wrists tightly. He took a long breath to calm himself down before fuelling a small amount of physical energy into his hands. It caused the wound in his chest to flare up in pain, but Naruto pushed through it and pulled his hands apart as far as he could, slowly bending the metal inside the handcuffs until they finally snapped off.
He gasped loudly and fell to the floor; the use of physical energy had drained his stamina more than he would've thought normal. The wound in his stomach had opened up and was flowing lightly through his shirt, but as he felt around his legs he noticed that the wounds he'd suffered from those arrows had healed completely.
Is this your doing? he asked internally. After several seconds it was clear he wasn't going to get a response, so he focused his attention on his more immediate problems.
With a small amount of effort he used spiritual energy to teleport himself into Hinata's cell, reaching down to place his hands into hers reassuringly. "It's okay, I'm right here."
She looked up at him and his heart broke as he saw the relief in her eyes. Breathing heavily he fuelled physical energy into his hands and broke both pairs of her handcuffs, catching her in his arms as she nearly fell to the ground.
"My precious Hinata, it's going to be okay," he repeated slowly as he brushed at her hair affectionately. "Why did you fight back? We had a plan, didn't we?"
"They shot you…" she replied quietly, her hands reaching out to grasp at the collar of his shirt. She slowly moved her head into his chest and muttered as tears fell from her eyes. "I thought I'd lost you again."
"Again?"
Taking several moments to centre herself, Hinata wiped at her eyes and looked at her husband with a strong expression, "When you had the Kyuubi extracted. I…didn't know if you were going to make it or not." She smiled warmly, "Seems silly now, doesn't it?"
"Not at all," said her husband, leaning forward to kiss her lightly on the lips. "I love you, you know that?"
"I love you too." Hinata went to get up, but grasped at her head and pushed her hands on the ground to steady herself. Naruto kept his hands on her shoulders to reassure her, but was already losing strength because of the wound in his chest.
"Not quite…according to plan…huh?" he said through pained breaths.
"I think I have a concussion," said Hinata quietly.
The two of them sat quietly for several moments before they both started to giggle uncontrollably. Hinata sighed loudly and cradled her head in her hands, "I can't believe I snapped like that. You were shot in the chest; it wasn't like you were going to die right then and there."
"I can't believe I got shot in the chest," said Naruto through pained giggles. "So did you kick that woman's ass? I think she kicked me in the head."
"Not quite. She was much stronger than I would've thought."
"Well that's something…I guess. So are these the right people?"
Hinata nodded as she rubbed at her sore wrists, "If they were Iwa shinobi they wouldn't have used chakra dampeners, and if they were Quiraji they would have killed us on the spot. That only leaves one group left."
"Good to hear," said Naruto with a grimace of pain. He turned his head to look at his wife, "Next time, let me do the planning."
"It worked out, didn't it?" replied Hinata with a tired smile.
Naruto barked out a laugh before wincing at his stomach, "Yes, sure. Walk into an ambush and get captured then wait for Sasuke or Itachi to verify who we are. Great plan."
"Better than your idea of covering the area in shadow clones." Hinata leaned over and placed a hand on her husband's stomach, "Why isn't this wound healing like you normally do?"
Naruto shrugged, "No doubt the Kyuubi is having its fun. I can't think of any other reason."
Hinata took a moment to heal her head with her chakra, thankful that the headache she'd suffered was short-lived before turning her attention to her husband.
Her hands glowed with blue chakra as his wound began to stitch itself together.
"Naruto…this isn't a normal arrow wound. It damaged your chakra points on impact."
Her blonde husband breathed out a sigh of relief as she healed his wound, once again thankful that he married a woman with medical training. "It's the same type as the Quiraji use."
"Why would they be using Quiraji weaponry?" asked Hinata, turning her hands back to normal and leaning back onto the wall behind her. "How would they even get them in the first place?"
Kissing his wife tenderly in thanks for healing him, Naruto got up to his feet and took a proper look at the prison they were in. There were only two cells in the near vicinity, the ones they had occupied, with a small staircase leading up to another level.
"Those chakra dampeners were probably Quiraji technology as well. They are fighting shinobi after all; it would make sense to use those kinds of speciality weapons against them."
Having healed herself of her concussion, Hinata picked herself up from the ground with her husband's help, leaning on his shoulder, "Are we going to get out of here now?"
Naruto frowned; he was almost used to breaking out of prisons by nature. "Well we are here, so if we go along with the plan we need to stay here."
"So we sit and wait for Sasuke? Sounds like fun," said his wife with a sigh. "I feel like I could sleep for a week."
Naruto nodded in agreement, but before he could say anything else there was a loud crashing noise directly above them. The two of them were on edge immediately, reaching for weapons they no longer possessed. They shared a look for a moment before a second crash caused them to both nod in agreement.
"Okay, let's get out of here," said Naruto, taking Hinata's hand into his. The two of them disappeared and reappeared on the other side of the prison bars. Naruto chuckled to himself as they started to walk towards the staircase.
"What is it?" asked Hinata softly.
"Nothing. I'm just thinking on how useful that technique is, that's all."
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The group of twenty Cascading Flow warriors made their way through each of the defence checkpoints cautiously, with no indication of any of the sentries that should've been greeting them whatsoever. At the front stood Sasuke and Fiore, with Itachi just behind. They had seniority in the rebellion, but Itachi had a presence that made the Cascading Flow warriors want to follow his orders.
As they made their way into the main living hall, they all immediately stood on guard as they saw what had happened within.
The large tables that were normally in the middle of the hall had been smashed to pieces and thrown to the sides, with damaged weapons all around the floor. The Cascading Flow warriors glared at the back of the hall, where they could see a large number of their comrades kneeling on the floor with their hands clearly bound and each had been beaten severely.
Standing behind the defeated Cascading Flow warriors, was a large group of Iwa shinobi, each wearing an animalistic shinobi mask on their faces. They appeared as a sea of faceless shinobi, with each holding a bladed weapon to one of the hostage's throats.
Fiore snarled loudly as she saw her mother kneeling at the front of the hostages, blood flowing from her head through her hair and dripping onto the floor. She went to step forward, but both Sasuke and Itachi pulled her back, they needed to get a better grip on the situation.
Sasuke turned on his Sharingan and tried to see what they were dealing with. He counted over fifty shinobi standing in the hall; though to his surprise he could see two chakra signals a short distance away. He figured they were likely there to flee at a moment's notice back to the village, but he knew that if he gave any orders to their men the Iwagakure shinobi might kill the hostages. He bit at his lip in frustration; he didn't know what to do.
"This must be every single one of their ANBU," said Itachi quietly. "A last ditch effort."
"What do we do?" asked Sasuke with a whisper. "Genjutsu?"
Itachi gave the slightest shake of his head, "Too many. They would be prepared to counterattack it, and you can't use Tsukuyomi."
The Iwa ANBU shinobi that stood with a sword to Elika's throat coughed loudly to get their attention. Each of his companions was ready to slit the hostage's throats at a moment's notice, a demonstration that they had the clear advantage.
Sasuke looked over at Fiore, who appeared to have calmed herself down as she stepped forward to negotiate. With nothing else he could do, Sasuke turned his Sharingan eyes back to their enemy and stood by her side.
"If you wanted to kill them, you already would have," he said quickly before Fiore could say something they might both regret. "What do you want?"
The lead ANBU shinobi turned his masked face to the young Uchiha. Sasuke was almost blown away by the chakra output she was giving out; it was comparable to his older brother before he lost his eyes. "You have spilt much Iwa blood over the past few years," she said with clear hatred in her voice. "We came here for revenge."
Fiore tightened her grip on her wood staff as she couldn't keep her eyes off of her mother's fallen form, "If you want a fight, you've got one."
Sasuke turned to his brother for a moment before something occurred to him. He turned back to their enemy, "You must know you cannot escape from here. Our forces have surrounded this building completely."
The female ANBU breathed inwards and puffed out her chest slightly, "Then we will die for our village." She indicated to her hostage, "Along with all of you."
Narrowing his eyes slightly as he contemplated whether to call for an attack or not, Sasuke ran a number of different scenarios in his mind. He couldn't see any that didn't involve a number of hostages dying, and with the number of ANBU near Elika he knew she would be the first killed.
"What do you want then?" he asked finally.
The lead ANBU turned to one of her subordinates for just a moment before regarding the young Uchiha through the soulless slits in her mask. "If you agree to our demands, we will let the hostages go and leave peacefully."
"Bullshit," said Fiore quickly. "Don't trust them," she said to Sasuke unnecessarily.
He put up a hand to indicative he understood, but he wasn't going to risk the hostage's lives if there was another option. It didn't cost them anything to talk, and he hoped that the force outside suspected something was wrong and converged on their location.
Though he couldn't bet on that.
"What do you want?" he asked finally.
With her free hand, she indicated to her hostage, "In exchange for freeing the hostages and the ceasing of hostilities, we want Elika, the leader of Cascading Flow to come with us." The expressions on each of the Cascading Flow warriors were clear enough to her to see what they would do, but she wasn't finished. She motioned to the front elements of her enemy, "We also want the one called Demon-Eyes, the daughter of Elika, Fiore and her partner."
Despite the situation, Sasuke inwardly groaned at the fact that he was still referred to as Fiore's partner. Even Itachi, who'd only been with them a short time, had made a name for himself. What did he have to do to get recognised?
"We can't accept that," came his brother's voice behind him. "The rebellion would crumble without its leadership."
Sasuke looked over at the hostages; they were all faces he recognised from his time at Cascading Flow. They weren't combatants; most of them were doctors, farmers, fishermen. He didn't recognise any of the warriors that were always with Elika anywhere, the ANBU must have killed them and kept Elika alive as a bargaining chip.
They only had one option. If it meant saving the other's lives, then there was no other choice.
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The young married couple pushed through a small door into what appeared to be a large kitchen. They stepped onto the tiled floor and looked back at the door, with Naruto letting out a low whistle as he saw that the prison door was inside a large fridge.
"Clever…" said an impressed Naruto. "No one would suspect that's where the prison was."
Hinata nodded in agreement, though her white eyes were directed to the nearby table inside the kitchen. To her surprise, it appeared as though their personal items had been dumped on top without anyone going through them at all.
They shared a confused look before stepping forward and rearming themselves quickly.
Naruto grinned to himself as he reached onto the table and picked up the hilt of his sword.
"You know, you've never told me why you like that thing so much," said Hinata beside him, checking the medical supplies that had been taken out of her pack carefully. "It's just a sword, honey."
The blonde shinobi showed her the hilt for a moment before placing it on his belt, "It's not just a sword. It's a glowing energy sword! It's awesome."
Hinata merely smiled at herself and finished going through her things, shouldering her pack onto her back. "Let's get going honey. That sound might've been Sasuke, he might need our help."
Twirling two kunai in his hands before placing them up his sleeves strategically, Naruto concentrated for a moment before bobbing his head. "We can use chakra again. Seems like they didn't think we'd be able to break out."
"Smart group of people…" said Hinata with a rare display of sarcasm, activating her Byakugan and widening her eyes in response to what she saw.
"What is it?" asked Naruto, concerned over his wife's expression.
Hinata didn't respond, she simply tugged on his sleeve and began moving towards the nearby open doorway. Her husband wasn't one to question her too much; he followed her quickly with the Second Hokage's sword in hand, just in case.
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Naruto frowned as he and Hinata hid behind a doorframe and looked in at the situation unfolding in front of them. They weren't sure what was going on, but the ANBU shinobi holding weapons to the hostages were clearly Iwa shinobi. A small part of him was happy to see Sasuke at the other side looking well, though he nearly did a double take as he saw the image of his older brother behind him. He wasn't sure if it was a genjutsu or not, but that wasn't his biggest concern.
Hinata tugged at his side and indicated to one of the hostages at the front, Naruto signalling back to her that he recognised the woman that had taken them hostage. They'd already established these were the people they'd been searching for, and seeing Sasuke had confirmed it, but they'd clearly come to a very tense situation.
They hadn't been noticed by either side yet, and after a very short conversation in hand signals they both came to the same conclusion. It was a simple plan, but those tended to be the most effective.
Naruto moulded a small amount of chakra as a test, with Hinata confirming his suspicion that there were no chakra-sensing types within the Iwa ANBU ranks. He counted fifty two ANBU shinobi and twenty warriors standing against them, including the Uchiha brothers.
While it would normally be a more even battle, since they both knew how strong Sasuke and Itachi were, the fact that there were hostages changed everything.
He turned to Hinata and signalled his idea, which she agreed with. He asked her if she could do her part, through which she gave him a look that made him smile and turn back to the front. Something about how Sasuke was looking at the enemy shinobi told him they didn't have any more time. He waved a hand just at the corner of Sasuke's view, and while he didn't get any confirmation that his old friend had seen him, he signalled his plan through hand signals regardless.
Sasuke sighed loudly and placed his katana back into its sheath, presenting his hands together their foe. "Okay."
"We have a deal?" asked the Iwa ANBU suspiciously.
The young Uchiha stepped forward and turned back to the other leaders of the Cascading Flow Rebellion, "Trust me. Follow my lead and it'll all work out." His Sharingan shifted to its ellipsis Mangekyou form as he stared back at the Iwa ANBU, "If you break your vow, we will hunt you down and kill you, no matter how many of us it takes."
Getting another ANBU to stand over Elika with a blade at her throat, the female ANBU stepped forward with her sword in hand, "We are shinobi of our word. If you come with us now, no more blood need be shed."
With the Iwa ANBU concentrating their gazes on the Cascading Flow warriors, Naruto and Hinata began their preparations. Naruto silently created a small collection of Kage Bunshin and regulated his breathing while Hinata concentrating heavily on maintaining her Byakugan and manipulating her spiritual energy separately, a feat she wasn't sure was possible until this very moment.
They waited until the enemy leader was a single step away from Sasuke, his brother and the tanned skinned girl before they began their plan.
With her hands stretched out towards the closest ANBU shinobi, Hinata began to systematically remove the air around the heads of two of them. They began to silently choke and die, with the young Hyuuga kunoichi using her spiritual techniques to soften their landings so they didn't make a sound as they fell.
The other Iwa ANBU didn't seem to notice at first, though the Cascading Flow warriors started to notice that something was happening as they started to arm up once again. Hinata was able to take out another three pairs of ANBU shinobi before she decided it was too risky to continue the covert attacks. She signalled to Naruto that she was done and stood in a ready crouch.
The blonde shinobi nodded and concentrated on his targets. He hoped that Sasuke had gotten his signals, but he didn't see any other choice at this stage.
Moving through the air in an instant, Naruto appeared beside the two ANBU standing over Elika's kneeling form. He couldn't see their expressions, but he imagined they would've been surprised to see him. Not one to wait on ceremony, Naruto reached out and grabbed them by the shoulders before disappearing in a flash.
The Iwagakure shinobi behind Elika's fallen form all jumped at the sight of two of their group disappearing with the strange shinobi. Several of the ANBU near the back of the hostage group went to kill their hostages, but crumbled to the ground as Hinata appeared behind them and drove her fingertips into their spines, overloading their chakra systems and knocking them out.
Immediately all hell broke loose in the hall.
The lead female ANBU snarled loudly and went to attack Sasuke directly, but the young Uchiha shoved a hand forward covered in lightning straight through her chest, killing her instantly. Fiore shot past her partner and threw her wood staff towards her mother, expanding it outwards into a protective shell that encompassed the Cascading Flow leader completely.
As some of the ANBU moved to kill their hostages, they were tackled in mid-air by Naruto's Kage Bunshin, with nearly two dozen stopped from attacking the fallen warriors.
The Cascading Flow warriors all shouted out a battle cry and charged forward, with Sasuke and Itachi at the forefront. Sasuke's hands sparkled with lightning as he tried to take out as many ANBU as he could without them killing their hostages.
It became clear that the Iwa ANBU were not going to be able to escape the hall, some of them appeared reluctant to kill their hostages when there was little reason to anymore. However an odd number of them began attacking each other in what appeared to be a fit of insanity. Unwilling to attack their comrades without understanding what was going on, they fell to their comrades blades before realising that the ANBU had fallen victim to one of Itachi's more powerful genjutsu, one that required him to remain in the background and control their senses from afar.
Fiore punched and kicked as feverishly as she tried to fight off as many Iwa ANBU as she could, though without her wood she was a far less potent foe than she would normally be. As several of her opponents circled around her and went to take her out, they were flanked by Sasuke and killed without prejudice.
With Naruto and Hinata's assistance, the battle was over in less than a minute. All of the ANBU were either knocked out or killed and none of the hostages had been killed. A number of hostages had been injured by spiteful ANBU as they were taken down by the Cascading Flow warriors. Almost half of the Cascading Flow warriors had been killed by a last ditch effort by three ANBU that had nearly destroyed an entire side of the hall, but the battle had been won.
Hinata turned her white eyed gaze to the approaching warriors, watching as they untied the hostages and tried to wake them up. The spiky haired girl besides Sasuke ran up to the wooden enclosure she'd placed around her mother and pulling it apart back to its staff form before clutching her mother in a tight hug. Elika, like the other hostages had been knocked unconscious prior to the battle, but Fiore was grateful that she wasn't hurt.
Leaving his brother and the remaining Cascading Flow warriors to tend to the hostages and the bodies, Sasuke walked up to Hinata and gave her a rare smile of appreciation. She smiled back, but was more grateful when she heard the characteristic crack of lightning as Naruto reappeared by her side, his Kage Bunshin having dissipated as they fought with the Iwa ANBU.
Seeing that the battle was over, Naruto relaxed his posture and grinned widely as he saw his old friend was okay.
Author's Note:
If there are some things that seem ambiguous in this chapter, trust me, wait until the next chapter. I don't want to reveal everything at once.
I also know the Iwa ANBU were taken out fairly easily, but they were at a disadvantage. They also underestimated their enemies.
In response to the asked question, Naruto won't be learning how to use Natural Energy. Since he never had Jiraiya as a teacher and never learnt the Frog Summoning Technique, there would be no way for him to even make that connection, let alone a need for him to learn it. Remember Natural Energy has an element of chakra in it, thus making it less effective against the Quiraji. In response to the other question, well you'll just have to wait and see. But suffice to say, the relationship between Naruto and the Kyuubi is still unresolved.
Please review and tell me what you think. I try to take each review into account, 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.