Well hello there my loyal and very patient readers, 12Ookami12 here with a brand new update. I apologize for the lack of updates for Thunder God's Legacy. My muse decided to be picky and chose this fic over TGL. But don't fear, as soon as my muse decides that TGL should get some love, I'll be back to updating it.
Now let me answer some reviews.
Guest 4/10/21: That my friend was a slight error left accidentally left in on my part. I adjusted the ages some time back and apparently I missed that one part. Thanks for pointing it out. ^_^
LegacyDroid3113: Thank you for your kind words and believing that the story has been inventive thus far. I hope I'll be able to keep that up. Also, you are correct in saying that the scene was to get Sayumi to awaken her bloodline. It wasn't the only reason for that scene but it was kinda the main one. Oh and let me clarify; I wasn't saying that the poison was stronger than Kurama's chakra, only that the poison was so potent that it took some time and concentration on Kurama's part to flush it out. So he couldn't do it instantly.
Dragon and Sword Master: Aaaww shucks, you gonna make me blush. XD. Thanks man.
FenreldStormBlade: Thanks for the review, man. Really appreciate it. Also just to clarify, the ship is 'Naruto x Sayumi x Hinata x Fem Haku.'
To everyone else who reviewed, thank you and much appreciation to all of you. If you want to, leave a review after you read this and I'll get back to you on the next update.
"Kyuubi Speaking"
'Kyuubi Thoughts'
"Normal Speech"
'Thoughts'
Flashbacks/Locations/Jutsu/Techniques
Disclaimer: All rights to Naruto are not owned by me.
Chapter 6
Crack
Boom
Thunder and lightning cracked above as the party of five consisting of four shinobi and one civilian, were walking along the wet dirt road, making their way to Wave. It had been four days since their departure from Konoha and on the third day a thunderstorm had rolled in overhead. The shinobi had opted to find shelter and wait it out but the civilian had made it clear how imperative it was that they make it back to Wave as soon as possible.
Not wanting to argue with their client, the shinobi relented and pressed on through the heavy showers of rainfall. It also didn't help that the rain had created a thick mist that was obscuring their view.
Also, the formation had changed since leaving Konoha. Now it was Hinata as the spearhead, Kakashi bringing up the rear, Sayumi flanking the left and Naruto flanking the right.
With her Dojutsu active, Hinata was scanning the area for any enemies that may be lurking about when suddenly, her body tensed.
Someone was there.
Discreetly, she used hand-signs to signal to her team that they had company.
With the same method, Sayumi asked, "How many?"
Hinata signed back, "Hard to tell. There's chakra mixed in with this mist, it's obscuring my vision."
Naruto glanced over his shoulder at his sensei and signed, "Course of action, sensei?"
Kakashi replied, "We keep moving, but stay on alert."
The genin nodded and kept moving while Tazuna downed the last of his Sake and disposed of the bottle, none the wiser about their conversation.
They walked for another thirty paces without incident, until…
Kakashi eyes widened and he grunted in pain.
The genin and civilian all turned to see what happened and their eyes widened in horror.
Translucent hooks attached to equally translucent chains that were coming from the water on the ground, were impaled through the Jonin's hands, legs, through his abdomen and through his neck.
Kakashi's eyes widened even more as the chains all tensed and the rest of the group watched in horror as the man's body was violently ripped apart.
Horrified, the party of four were frozen in place as they watched the man's mutilated corpse fall to the ground in a bloody heap.
Two shouts of, Suiton: Shinso mizu keimusho, rang through the clearing.
Before the genin could react, the water on the ground swirled around them like a whirlpool, before forming a large sphere that trapped them and Tazuna inside.
Two figures flickered in front of the sphere and each put one of their hands in the sphere while the other hand was holding the snake hand-seal.
"Heh, got em'." The one bearing two horns on his Hitai-ate, boasted.
"Not yet." The one bearing one horn on his Hitai-ate said to his brother. "Shut up and keep focusing. They're not dead yet."
The dual horned assailant looked at this brother. "Hehe, we ain't got nothing to worry about." He then looked back at the struggling group in the sphere with a sinister look in his eyes. "They're as good as dead anyway."
From inside the sphere, all of them were struggling against the effects of the water. Due to the how high the pressure was, they could literally feel their bodies compressing in on themselves.
Naruto looked over at Tazuna and he could see the man was already unconscious with blood leaking from his ears; likely from his eardrums rupturing. He looked over at the girls and he could see that they were struggling to keep conscious.
With no other option, Naruto did a one handed ram seal and began flaring his chakra.
On the outside, the brothers could feel the pushback on their technique.
"Damn it, he's breaking out." Meizu said.
"Give it more chakra." Gozu ordered.
The brothers pushed more of their chakra into the sphere and were at a stalemate with their blonde captive.
Determined to escape, Naruto flared more of his chakra and he could see the sphere start to destabilize.
The brothers began to sweat as they struggled to keep the prison stable.
With one more flare of his chakra, he disrupted the water prison and it exploded, sending the brothers tumbling back along the wet dirt road.
The party of four all fell to the ground with three of them gasping for air. Sayumi clutched at her chest from where the pressure had almost caused her abdomen to cave in on itself. Hinata was coughing and droplets of blood were coming from her mouth and Tazuna was still unconscious. Naruto was relatively fine, even though his ears were bleeding.
Roughly fifteen feet away, both brothers got to their feet and were equally pissed that their technique had failed.
"Damn it! I was sure we had them." Meizu cursed.
"No use complaining now. Using that jutsu sapped most of our chakra." Gozu replied before he took two gauntlets from his pouch and tossed one to his brother. "Guess we got no choice but to go it old school on this one."
Meizu caught the gauntlet and put it on. "Fine by me. I always preferred this anyway."
"And Meizu. Remember who the target is." Gozu reminded.
Meizu got into his ready stance. "Yeah, yeah. I got it."
With a nod to each other, the brothers charged at the group.
Naruto saw them coming and quickly got up to intercept. "Hinata, check on Tazuna. Onee-chan and I'll deal with these guys." Not waiting for a response, he took a deep breath and thought, 'Futon: Dangan'. Multiple bullets of air fired from his mouth and at the charging assailants.
Thinking quickly, the brothers used a quick shunshin to flicker around the bullets, narrowly avoiding them and heard the bullets impact on the road behind them.
They appeared in front of Naruto and Meizu swung his clawed hand at the bewhiskered teen's face, but Naruto leaned back and watched as the attack passed over him. Seeing his chance, he went right over and hit the dual horned attacker with a flip kick to the chin. He then capitalized on this with a left punch to the stomach followed by a right uppercut to the chin and he finished it with rear hook to the side of the attacker's face.
Meizu jumped back to give himself some breathing room and shook his head to get rid of the stars he was seeing. Unfortunately for him, Naruto wasn't having any of that and quickly appeared in front of him and knocked his lights out.
Seeing his brother go down, Gozu seized the opportunity and slipped by the blonde to go after his target. As he was making a beeline toward Tazuna and Hinata, he was intercepted by Sayumi, who swung her blade at him.
To keep his head from being divorced from his body, Gozu brought up his gauntlet arm and blocked the sword strike, before quickly jumping back out of reach.
"Going somewhere?" The ravenette taunted.
"Damn it." He cursed under his breath. "Stand aside. My business doesn't concern you."
"You tried to kill me and my teammates…" she then got into her stance, "…That makes it my business."
Gozu narrowed his gaze at her, 'Stupid bitch.' He glanced behind him and saw that the blonde had already positioned himself in case he tried to escape. He snarled, "I don't have time for this." before performing a shunshin to get behind the Uchiha and then proceeded to charge toward the still unconscious Tazuna.
Hinata saw the incoming assailant and got to her feet, ready to defend herself and the client.
Just as he got within reach, the single horned assailant went to strike Hinata with his clawed hand.
As the bluenette was about to defend herself, Sayumi flickered in front of her and thrusted the tip of her sword; piercing right through the gauntlet and impaling the rogue-nin's hand. Milking her advantage, Sayumi channeled lightning through the sword and into the rogue-nin.
"AAAAAAAAAH!" The single horned adversary screamed as he was electrocuted.
A few moments later, Sayumi ceased the electrical assault, pulled her blade out of his hand and watched as his smoking, unconscious body toppled over and fell to the ground.
Satisfied, Sayumi turned and looked at Hinata. "You alright?"
Hinata relaxed out of her stance and nodded. "Yeah, thanks."
Sayumi nodded before flicking the blood off her sword and re-sheathing it. She then looked out into the surrounding forest. "Feel free to come out, Kakashi-sensei."
The man in mention flickered back onto the pathway with his signature eye smile. "Nice work team on successfully handling the threat." He praised before looking at the assailants and took out some wire from his pouch and tossed it to Naruto, "Naruto, secure those two."
The blonde caught it, "Hai, Sensei."
As Naruto was doing that, the silver haired man was assessing the situation. 'Well that clarifies my suspicions. Tazuna was lying from the start, for this wasn't just a random encounter where they saw us and decided to attack. This was an ambush and it's clear that their target was the old man. Now the only question that needs an answer is, why? Why target a simple bridge builder?' He saw that Tazuna was still unconscious and Hinata was healing him. He looked over at Naruto and saw that he had secured the assailants and that they were unconscious. 'Not gonna get my answers now. Not yet anyway.'
"We'll be stopping for the night." He declared before looking at the Uchiha. "Sayumi, scope out a suitable area where we can set up camp." He then pointed at Naruto, "You, go with her and help out. Also, see if there are any streams or rivers nearby where we can use for water and food. Go."
Both nodded. "Hai, Sensei." And then they flickered away to do their task.
With them gone, Kakashi looked at the restrained brothers and then at his last student as well as his client. 'Quite the mess you've put us in, Tazuna-san.' He looked up and saw that the storm was finally passing and the sun was beaming its rays through the clouds. 'On the bright side, the storm's finally over.'
A few hours later 'Nighttime'
A groan came out of the old man's mouth as his eyes fluttered open and immediately he felt his head pounding. 'Ugh, reminds me of that time Inari got into my Icha Icha stash and Tsunami found out. Damn frying pot!' With his vision ceasing its rotation, he noticed that he was inside a tent and was covered with a blanket.
"Well hello there, sleeping beauty. Had a nice rest?" Kakashi asked with his eye smile.
Tazuna got to his feet, stepped out of the tent and stretched, "YAAAAAW." Before going to sit at the campfire that the rest of the group was around.
He wiped the sleep out of his eye and asked, "Any of you got any aspirin? I got this killer headache that felt like I went on a week-long bender."
Hinata went into her supply scroll and took out a few pills before handing them to Tazuna with a bottle of water. "Here."
Tazuna took them and said, "Thanks, kid." Before taking the pills and downed the bottle of water. In the next few moments, he would feel his headache fade away. "Aaah, that's better."
Naruto, who was sitting across from the bridge builder, tossed him a stick with a roasted fish on it.
Tazuna caught it. "Thanks." And started to eat. After he took his third bite out of the fish, he looked at the group and said. "So, you guys mind telling me what happened after I passed out." He then looked at Kakashi, "And why he is still alive?"
Kakashi almost looked hurt, "Aww, that sounds like you wanted me to die, Tazuna-san."
The bridge builder stopped eating and looked at the masked man. "You know what I mean. The last time I saw you, you were ripped into confetti."
"Well…" Kakashi then kicked the tree beside him and suddenly, Tazuna was face to face with the two unconscious assailants that were now dangling in front of him, being suspended by wires. "…let's just say, they weren't good enough to finish me off."
Colour drained from the man's face and he let out a girlish scream and quickly scurried away from them.
The rest of the group couldn't help but laugh at the old man's expense.
Tazuna took a few deep breaths to calm his racing heart before looking back at the still laughing shinobi. "Y'all think this is funny! Trying to give me a heart attack!"
Naruto calmed down from his laughter and said, "Well considering that you lied to us, just think of this as payback."
Tazuna quickly became nervous. "W-what are you talking about? I never li…"
"Cut the crap, Tazuna." Sayumi intervened. "We already picked up on the fact that something was off when we were given the mission details back in Konoha. We just didn't know exactly what it was."
Hinata picked up after Sayumi. "Then there's the attack and the fact that you were their…" she pointed a thumb at the brothers, "…target."
"What makes you think that they were after me? You guys are the shinobi here. I'm just a mere civilian who happens to be good at building stuff. They're more likely to be after you, not me." Tazuna countered.
"Hmm." Kakashi started. "Well, I don't like to toot my own horn but I'm not an easy target to take down, and even though they may look the part, they're not stupid enough to come after me on their own. Then there's my students. They're newcomers to the shinobi world, so it's highly unlikely that they would be targeted as well."
Naruto chimed in. "Then there's the fact that they were dead set on getting to you. Even when I stopped one of them, the other went straight for you, even going as far as to ignore the rest of us completely. He didn't care that he may end up getting caught, he just wanted to get to you."
Sayumi continued, "So it's either you tell us what is really going on here, or we'll leave you out here on your own with these two." Gesturing to the brothers as she said that.
Fear instantly came over the bridge builder's face, "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"
"Maa, maa, Tazuna-san. No need to shout." The Jonin said in a placating tone. "Also, yes we can." Before Tazuna could interrupt, Kakashi cut him off. "You lied about the mission details, and by doing that, you not only put yourself in danger but you also put our lives at risk as well, for if we hadn't been able to handle this threat, we would have been killed because of you misleading us. So by protocol, we can declare this mission as null and void and leave you out here alone, right now."
Kakashi then narrowed his gaze at the old man. "So the way I see it, you only have two options. Option A: You give us the real details of this assignment and we can decide if we should still help you, or option B: You keep lying and we leave you out here high and dry, ready to be picked off by whoever else is sent after you. The choice is yours and I'd suggest you choose wisely."
Tazuna gulped nervously and looked at the group of shinobi. He could see that they were all dead serious. With a heavy sigh, he relented. "Okay, I'll tell you." The bridge builder then spent the next few minutes explaining that a powerful shipping magnate by the name of Gato took control of Wave's shipping routes and in doing that, he created a monopoly by isolating the country from the rest of the world. He further explained that the strangle-hold that Gato has on Wave, caused their economy to plummet and right now everyone was living in poverty because Gato kept bleeding the country dry of everything it has.
"That's why I need to finish the bridge. With it, we can openly trade with the neighboring countries and begin to re-stabilize our economy." Tazuna explained.
The members of team 7 all shared glances at each other, silently deliberating on what they should do.
Hinata then spoke up. "We understand your concerns, Tazuna-san, but answer me this. What's stopping Gato from coming in and taking the bridge from you after we leave?"
Tazuna was dumbfounded. He hadn't thought about that possibility.
"Hinata makes a good point." The ravenette remarked. "Even if we escort you back to Wave and you complete this bridge, we'll be leaving afterward and that leaves you vulnerable. All Gato would have to do is swoop in, kill you and then take control of the bridge."
"But he's trying to kill me now. So it's likely that he hasn't thought about that yet."
"Keyword: Yet. If this guy is as greedy as you make him out to be, then it won't take him long to realize that he has an opportunity to make more money by allowing you to finish the bridge and then taking it over." Naruto pointed out.
Tazuna realized the truth in their words and grew visibly frustrated. "Damn it!" he exclaimed as he slammed his fist into a nearby tree. Tears started to pool at the corners of his eyes. "No matter what we try, it's never enough to get out from under that bastard's hand. For every step we take forward there always seems to be more leading back." He said as tears began dripping from his eyes and blood dripped from his fist.
The members of team 7 once again shared glances, before silently coming to a decision and nodded at each other.
"Well, it seems you're in luck, Tazuna-san. We decided that we're going to help you." Kakashi told him.
Tazuna turned around and the tear streak were visible on his face. "Y-you're going to help me."
They all nodded and Naruto spoke. "Yeah. Even though you lied and underpaid us, that's no reason for us to leave that country to suffer."
"Thank you, thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me." The man spoke with joy in his tone, before his eyes widened in thought. "Wait! You said that Gato would likely come in and take the bridge from me after you leave. How're you gonna deal with that?"
"Well, from the look of things, Gato is gonna be a thorn in our asses as long as he's in the picture. So the only course of action left, would be to rub him out of that picture." The masked Jonin said in a nonchalant tone.
"You mean…" Hinata asked in an apprehensive tone.
"Yep. This escort mission just got assassination added to the to-do-list." Kakashi answered.
"O-oh." Hinata said with some uncertainty seeping into her tone.
"Nervous?" Sayumi asked the Hyuga.
Hinata nodded, "Can you blame me. Assassination wasn't what I had in mind when I thought of my first real mission."
"You might as well get used to it, Hinata. In our line of work, whether or not we get the full details, there's always the chance of things going awry." Her sensei advised.
The bluenette nodded at her sensei's advice before gesturing for Tazuna to come to her so she could heal his hand.
While she was doing that, Naruto cut down the demon brothers and tied them to a nearby tree.
After Hinata finished with Tazuna and Naruto finished securing the brothers. Everyone retook their seats around the campfire. This is where Kakashi explained to Tazuna that even though they were going to help him, they would still require the proper payment since the mission rank has now been bumped up to B-rank, and could possibly go even higher to that of an A-rank.
Tazuna told them that wouldn't be an issue once Gato was out of the picture. With him gone, he should be able to get the required amount of funds to pay them.
After that, the conversation died down and one by one they all went off to bed. They wouldn't have to worry about keeping watch, since Naruto and Sayumi had reinforced a few shadow clones with extra chakra to keep watch on their campsite.
The next day came and everyone got up and got their things in order to continue their journey to Wave. After everyone was ready to go, Kakashi gave the order for his students to get back into formation.
Tazuna was confused, so he asked Kakashi while gesturing to the brothers, "What about them? Are you just gonna leave them there?"
Kakashi shrugged. "Pretty much. I already put out a signal to any of our hunter-nin who may be in the area that there's a bounty here ready to be collected. With the sedative we gave them, they should be out for a little while longer; long enough for them to get picked up."
Tazuna shrugged and accepted his answer, and with that they resumed their journey.
Two Hours Later
Gozu groaned as he stirred awake. His vision was very blurry from having been unconscious for so long. As his cloudy vision began to clear up, he tried to stand only to be met with resistance. He finally realized that he was tied to a tree and his hands and legs were also tied together. His brother, who was waking up, was also in a similar state of restraint and both of them were without their weapons and they couldn't access their chakra since they both had seals on them that kept them from accessing it.
Before either of them could focus on trying to escape their restraints, they heard the sound of paper being flipped. They looked up and saw a tall figure who was wearing a black cloak that had red clouds decorating it. He had a mask over the lower half of his face and on his forehead, they could see a Takigakure Hitai-ate that had the symbol scratched across. This man was leaning against one of the nearby trees and he was flipping through a very familiar blue book that instantly put the brothers on edge.
Off to the side, they saw what was undoubtedly a dead body. It was a man wearing a black battle kimono that was smeared with blood and on his face was a white porcelain mask with a Konoha insignia. A Konoha hunter-nin.
"Hmm, which page is it?" The man said in a very gruff tone. "Aah, here it is. Gozu and Meizu, AKA the Demon Brothers. Both are C-ranked missing-nin from Kirigakure. Ten thousand Ryo for Gozu and Fifteen thousand Ryo for Meizu. A twenty percent bonus if brought in together and another fifteen percent bonus if brought in dead." He then peered over the book and at the brothers. "Seems my decision has been made for me." He then snapped the book shut and put it away before pushing off the tree that he was using to support himself and began walking toward them.
The brothers were terrified for their lives since they realized what this man was about to do. They began to squirm to try and escape their restraints but without their chakra and weapons, there was nothing they could do. They stopped squirming when they heard the footsteps stop right in front of them.
"I'll have to thank the copy ninja and his brats for making my job so easy." The man said as tendrils began appearing out of his arms, "Now try not to squirm. I'd rather not make a mess."
The last thing the brothers saw, was the flash of the tendrils before their vision went permanently dark.
The figure retracted his tendrils that he had used to pierce through their skulls, before sealing their bodies as well as that of the hunter-nin into a scroll and then disappeared with the use of shunshin.
Kakashi and Naruto were walking on the water on either side of the boat that was ferrying Tazuna across the lake to get to Wave.
In the boat, the girls were sitting on either side of Tazuna and were constantly scanning the area with their Dojutsu, while the driver was doing his job.
Everything was going smoothly until they all felt a disturbance in the water below them. It felt big!
Kakashi turned to Tazuna, "Tazuna-san, is there anything in these waters that we should be…aware of?"
Tazuna shook his head to say no. "The biggest things in these waters are the Koga Tuna, and they're not a threat to anyone."
Kakashi nodded at him before asking Hinata, "Did you see what it was?"
"Not completely. It swam away before I could get a good look at it. But I can tell you that it is massive." The bluenette responded.
"Ok." The masked man said before looking at the driver. "Slow and steady. We don't know what the hell that was, so it's best to not disturb it."
The man shakily nodded. "R-right."
They continued to move toward land when they felt a disturbance yet again. But this time it felt, heavier!
Hinata's eyes widened. "It's back!" She suddenly gave out. "It's directly below us and it's rushing to surface, fast!"
Realizing the situation, "GRAB THEM!" Kakashi hastily ordered.
Not needing to be told twice, the girls grabbed Tazuna and the boat driver before flickering out of the boat. Naruto and Kakashi quickly followed suit.
No sooner had they flickered away, the boat exploded as a massive translucent beast with red eyes, erupted from the lake.
The group reappeared just a few meters away from shore, with the girls carrying Tazuna and the boat driver.
Splinters from the boat rained from the sky and sank into the lake and in its place was a gigantic water dragon.
The aquatic beast turned its head and looked at the group, its glowing red eyes staring menacingly at them.
Shinobi and civilian alike all tensed as the aquatic beast stared them down.
For a few moments there was no movement, then all of a sudden the dragon launched itself at them.
"GET BEHIND ME!" Naruto yelled. They all did and he began winding up his fist. A blue aura of chakra appeared around his fist as he winded it up faster.
The dragon was a mere ten feet from them when Naruto unleashed his attack.
Futon: Massugu Ni Nejiru, the blonde yelled as he threw his fist and twister of blue energy erupted from it.
The twister smashed into the dragon and the two techniques battled for dominance. Naruto's technique would prove to be the superior of the two when it ultimately won the stalemate and obliterated the water dragon.
Realizing that whoever casted that Jutsu was proficient in water techniques, they all flickered off the water's surface and onto dry land. At least this way they were partially out of the enemy's domain. The girls put down the two men before getting into defensive positions, and soon after this, a thick mist rolled in.
The mist enveloped everything around them and made it nigh impossible for anyone to see anything outside of a few feet in front of them.
"Can you girls see anything?" Kakashi asked.
Sayumi shook her head and Hinata said, "No. This mist seems to be made of chakra, so I can't see through it."
Kakashi soon realized just who it was that was stalking them, and called out. "Hmm. Not gonna lie, I never thought of you as the type that would work for a guy like Gato."
Everyone else was confused at his sudden statement, until a dark, menacing chuckle started to echo around them.
"What can I say, copy ninja. A man's gotta earn a living somehow." A deep, gruff voice answered.
Kakashi shrugged, "True. I don't suppose you'd be willing to let us by, so we can finish our mission."
"Sorry but no can do. What I can do however, is allow you and your rag-tag group rookies to leave with your heads on your shoulders, as long as you hand over the bridge builder."
Kakashi seemed to ponder this for a few moments. "Well, we could do that…"
"W-wait, What?!" Tazuna stuttered out in fright.
Satisfied that he had freaked out his client; hey, he had to get some payback for the deception, Kakashi continued, "…but sadly we can't. He's kinda our paycheck, so we can't really let him bounce, you know how it is."
"Can't say I didn't try to be civil." The voice replied but it went completely silent once again.
"Keep on your toes, our enemy is…" The masked Jonin started before he was cut off.
"Zabuza Momochi, yeah we already figured it out." Hinata answered.
Out of nowhere, a dark and sinister laugh started to echo around them and they all felt a heavy, malevolent spike of KI that rooted them to their spots. The civilians had all but passed out, while the shinobi were faring better and were ready to act on a moment's notice.
"Eight points: Heart, Liver, Lungs, Kidney, Spine, Jugular, Subclavian Artery, Larynx." Another dark chuckle was carried on the wind. "So many vital points, which one to choose. Decisions, decisions."
It once again went quiet and it would stay that way for a few more moments, until…
The boat driver, who was at the back of the group, was shaking like a leaf; totally creeped out by the turn of events. In his fear he began to take steps, backing away from the group. He continued to blindly backtrack until his back hit something solid. His breath caught in his throat and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, once he realized that the object was moving up and down.
Breathing!
Without turning his head, he glanced back and in his peripheral vision, he could see that someone was behind him. The middle aged man gulped and shakily turned his head to see who it was.
The bandaged Kiri missing-nin, gave the man an eye smile. "Hey there."
"BEHIND US!" Hinata yelled.
Everyone turned around just in time to see Zabuza decapitate the boat driver.
Thud
The man's head fell to the ground and rolled before coming to a stop just in front of the group. On his face they could see the horrified expression that remained. His body soon followed suit and toppled over and blood gushed from the wound.
Zabuza let out a menacing cackle as he skulked back into the mist.
"Damn it!" Sayumi cursed under her breath.
"One down, five to go. Who should I go after next?" The malicious voice echoed around them.
"There won't be a next time, you bastard." Naruto declared before breezing through a few hand seals and throwing out his hands. Futon: Kaze no parusu.
The wind dispersed all of the mist and revealed Zabuza who was right behind Sayumi.
'Damn it. Forgot that he's a wind user.'
Kakashi saw that Zabuza was momentarily distracted and decided to capitalize. "Sayumi, duck." Shōgeki-tekina sai nyūkoku.
Sayumi ducked and saw as her sensei flew over her, his body crackling with lightning and kicked Zabuza right in the chest, which sent Kiri's demon sailing back onto the lake.
Not letting up, Kakashi cancelled his lightning and quickly flew through a few hand seals before stopping on the tiger seal. Katon: Gokkakyu no jutsu.
Zabuza saw the fireball hurdling toward him and was quick to counter. Suiton: Suijinheki. A wall of water rose up in front of Kiri's ninja swordsman and blocked the fireball, creating a blanket of steam.
"Take Tazuna and go. I'll deal with Zabuza." Kakashi looked back and saw Zabuza charging at him through the steam. "Go now!" The Jonin ordered before he ran to meet Zabuza head on.
Naruto was about to go out there and help him, but Sayumi stopped him. "No, Naruto. You heard him. Our orders are to get Tazuna to his home safe and sound. Kakashi's good enough to handle Zabuza on his own."
Naruto didn't like it but he nodded all the same. Sayumi then looked at Tazuna. "How far is your home?"
"About a mile or so up the road." The elder builder responded.
"Ok. Stick close to Hinata." She then glanced at Naruto, "Naruto will take point and I'll bring up the rear. Let's go." With Sayumi taking control of the situation, they took off for the man's house.
Zabuza brought down his Kubikiribocho and Kakashi managed to stop it by crossing two kunai above his head.
"Big mistake sending those brats on their own, copy ninja." The burly swordsman remarked as he put more pressure on his opponent.
Kakashi fell to a knee and grunted against the immense pressure. "Don't be so quick to assume, Zabuza. Those kids are more than capable of fending for themselves." He then started to gather raiton chakra to his palms.
Zabuza noticed this and let up on the pressure before kicking away the masked-nin before he could be electrocuted.
Kakashi skidded to a halt on the water's surface and had to immediately dodge to the side, lest he become a head shorter from Zabuza tossing his blade.
There was a flash of movement and Kiri's akuma caught up to his blade and swung it around to cleave the silver haired man in two.
Clang
Once again, Kakashi blocked the attack with his kunai but the strength of the swing was enough to throw him back a few feet.
Zabuza shouldered his massive blade. "I see that you're worthy of your rank, Kakashi-san. Too bad you weren't a Kiri shinobi. You could have helped us take out that bastard, Yagura."
"I'm honored that you think so highly of me, Zabuza-san. It's too bad we're on opposite sides of the fence here. Could have been good friends."
Kiri's akuma couldn't help but agree, "It really is too bad." Before getting into his stance.
Kakashi did the same.
A gentle breeze blew and picked a few leaves off the surrounding trees. A single leaf fluttered between the two men. The leaf floated and fluttered on the wind before coming to a stop on the water's surface.
Both combatants rushed at each other and in a display of metal and sparks, they clashed their weapons.
About a half mile away, the genin and civilian were making a beeline to Tazuna's house.
"Huff, huff. Ca…can't we… can't we stop for a minute? I'm running out of steam here." Tazuna wheezed as he stopped and wrung buckets of sweat from his shirt.
Everyone else stopped and looked at him. "Not now. We can stop when we make it to your house." Sayumi responded.
"C'mon." The old man whined. "We're a good distance away from that bandaged psycho. Can't we spare a few minutes for rest."
"You can rest when you're dead, old man. Now c'mon, we gotta keep going." Naruto said.
Hinata's eyes widened and she looked out to her left into the forest. "Someone's there."
They all immediately got into defensive positions around Tazuna.
"Show yourself. We know you're out there." Sayumi called out, with her hand ready to draw her blade.
A slim and slender silhouette appeared in the tree-line. It walked toward them with a sensual sway of its hips. This person who was clearly female, came into view.
Despite his life being in mortal danger, Tazuna couldn't stop the blush that erupted on his face.
The woman was wearing a short, sleeveless, light black qipao dress that hugged her body like a second skin and had an opening at the chest area that gave a very generous view of her bountiful assets as well as the Jashin pendant resting in-between the twin peaks. The dress stopped just short of her thighs and were slit open on the sides, exposing even more of her tan flawless skin. The only thing they could see underneath her dress was what looked like a mesh shorts. Atop her head was a mop of black, glossy hair that fell just above her shapely rear and on her wrists were black braces with a red Jashin symbol engraved on each.
"Ura Shinku." Naruto said as a bead of sweat rolled off his brow.
This had the ripple effect of putting Sayumi and Hinata even more on their guard.
The black haired woman winked her crimson eye at the bewhiskered teen. "I'm flattered that you know my name, handsome." She then looked over the blonde and licked her lips. "Mmm, why aren't you candy for the eyes. Maybe later after all this is over, we can get to know each other on a more personal level." Batting an eyelash and biting her lower lip as she said that.
Hinata couldn't stop the low growl that escaped her mouth. Similarly, Sayumi fully unsheathed her blade and got into her stance with a scowl on her face.
Ura couldn't help but let out a low, melodic laugh when she saw this. 'Oooh, possessive are we.'
"Not interested." Naruto quickly shot back. 'Boy am I glad that Aniki and Anko-nee-chan warned me about this kunoichi tactic. Effective, but downright cheap.' The blonde thought as he looked her square in the eyes.
Ura pouted, "Not even a little curious about what I have underneath this…" she said as she slowly started to peel off the top of her dress.
"Keep your clothes on! Why is someone like you here?" Sayumi asked in a displeased tone.
"My my, why aren't you a mood killer. Well if you must know, I was hired to kill not-so-fine-wine over there." Pointing her black single bladed scythe at Tazuna.
How the hell did they miss that!
"But seeing as he has company, I think I'll entertain myself first." The woman said as she shoulder her weapon. She then gave Naruto a sultry look and enticingly gestured for him to come at her. "Now come on my handsome friend and show me what you're made of, but please…be gentle."
And wham-bam, this chapter is done. How y'all like my OC antagonist 'Ura Shinku.' Originally she was gonna be male, but I decided to switch it up since there's already a surplus of male baddies in the series. I'll leave a link to the image that I based her look off of on my profile page.
Also, before anyone gets on my case. Let me give credit where it is due. For that scene where the team points out what Gato could with Tazuna and the bridge, I drew inspiration from Pain17ification's 'Hikari to Yami' fic. A really stellar fic that I'd recommend you guys to check out.
Jutsu list so far:
Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu = Fire Style: Fire ball
Futon: Uzumaku Kaze no Kabe = Wind Style: Swirling Wind Wall
Hitogan: Rapiddofaia = Heat Gun: Rapid Fire
Kaze no Yoroi = Wind Armor
Futon: Kaze no Zojiki = Wind Style: Wind Vacuum
Katon: Kyanonborē = Fire Style: Cannon Volley
Futon: Reppusho = Wind Style: Gale Palm
Doton: Doryuuheki = Earth Style: Mud Wall
Suiton: Suijinheki = Water Style: Water Wall
Futon: Kaze no Parusu= Wind Style: Wind Pulse
Futon: Massugu Ni Nejiru = Wind Style: Twisting Straight
I took this move from Joe Higashi from King of Fighter 13. It's his neo-max move, the 'Screw Straight'. Only with a different name and colour. ^_^
Futon: Dangan = Wind Style: Wind Bullets
Suiton: Shinso mizu keimusho = Water Style: Deep Pressure Water Prison
My own variation of the standard water prison. Instead of just a prison that drowns the unlucky soul, this one has the same effects that you'd expect from being submerged miles underwater, where the pressure is high.
Shogeki-tekina sai nyukoku = Shocking Re-Entry
This one is pretty much Kakashi's own version of Gai's 'Dynamic Entry.'