Captain Blues: Hello! I am Captain Blues of the SS ProtoB-

Naruto (United): Where is Rain?

Captain Blues: He is gone. I'm taking over in his stead as Captain of this ship.

Naruko: We want Rain back.

Captain Blues: Look mates, Rain is gone but I promise to man the helm in his stead. I won't lead my new crew to ruin so just trust me, okay?

Menma: Very well…

Captain Blues: Wonderful. Well, that deflated my first introduction to this new land so let's just get to it!

United I Stand
Chapter Fifteen: A Daring Escape!

"I'll kill you Bankotsu! I swear it on my life!" Yamanaka Ino screamed as she banged on the steel door to her prison. The mission she and her team was supposed to be easy. Gather Intel about some short dick named Gato that hid out there and then return.

Instead, she and her team stumbled upon the Shichinintai, who beat them with their unfair advantage in numbers and-

Ino stared down in stunned disbelief as brown lifeless eyes stared up at her. She could feel the blood from his head seep through her sandals along with the side of his head.

"He was a wily guy but in the end, Banryū claimed another one," The voice of Bankotsu said with a light, almost carefree tone. "If you guys want to end up like him, go ahead and try to fight. Otherwise, come peacefully."

Rage continued to build through her as she banged on the steel door as hard as she could, her hands caked in fresh blood due to the amount of blows she landed against the metal door. "Bankotsu!" She screamed as continued to bang on the door.

She had to get out. She had to find Shikamaru and Chōji…Or were they as dead as…

The image of dull brown eyes appearing in her head as the sound of Shikamaru and Chōji screamed in horror, both of them pinned down to the ground by their captors.

Ino slid to the ground as tears welled in her eyes. She wanted to cry. She needed to cry but she forced them back. "No tears…" Ino whispered, her voice weary. "Not until this is done…Not until my friends are safe and sound and sensei is avenged…"

Ino looked up and stared at the various chakra seals on the door. There had to be something she could do. Some way to escape…

Ino stood up and walked to the seals and eyed them down.

Her father had drilled into her head the classification of certain chakra absorption/dampening/muting/etc seals and from the look of them, she realized that these were chakra absorption seals. However, they were only mid to high level seals so they would be able to absorb any amount of chakra that matched or exceeded B-rank level jutsu but anything c-rank or lower could still work…

"The chakra absorption seals…They only go to C-Rank here," Ino whispered as realization set in.

She had an idea...

Kyōkotsu was hungry.

He had been bored for the past two days since he and his brothers-in-arms had slain that Konoha shinobi and unfortunately for him, he was not allowed to eat the remains as Mukotsu, Ginkotsu and Suikotsu quickly took the remains and headed towards Konoha to deliver the body as a warning to pay the ransom.

And hearing that girl scream for days on end was really working up his appetite. When he first laid eyes on her, he knew he had to have a taste but she was a hostage…If only he could sink his teeth into her.

Maybe a leg, it should be enough to satisfy him.

"Kyōkotsu, can you stop with that annoying sound?" A feminine voice asked from behind him.

Kyōkotsu turned around to see lean, feminine looking young man of average height who had his black hair pinned in a feminine style with a butterfly patterned hairpin. The young man's eyes were large, with small, dark irises and he had blue tattoos resembling snake fangs underneath them. He also had red lip coloring, along with blue-green eyeshadow on his face.

The young man wore a pink kimono with leaf-like patterns on it, a violet striped obi sash, a purple scarf that hung around his neck and waraji sandals. "Your teeth gnashing woke me up, you big ogre," the man whined, clearly displeased.

"Sorry Jakotsu. I'm just hungry," Kyōkotsu apologized to his brother-in-arms with an agitated tone.

"Didn't I see you eat a woman this morning?" Jakotsu asked curiously.

"Yeah but she was so skinny, it was like eating a twig. All bone, barely skin," Kyōkotsu grumbled out.

"I will never understand your appetites. Why don't you go eat one of the hostages then?" Jakotsu suggested. "Maybe the blonde one. You kept eyeing her down before we attacked and her noise is ruining my beauty sleep."

"She looked good enough to eat and you know I like them feisty like her…" Kyōkotsu sighed out longingly. "Do you think Bankotsu would mind?"

"As long as he get the ransom, our dear leader wouldn't care what happens to one of them," Jakotsu answered with a shrug. "Just get her out of the way so her yelling can stop and your gnashing can end."

"That's good enough for me," Kyōkotsu said as he stood up, his large frame nearly causing him to bump his head on the ceiling. He gave Jakotsu a toothy grin, revealing his sharpened teeth, and said "Don't wait up," before he stalked off towards the basement stairs.

Ino's head whipped up as she heard the loud, thundering footsteps get closer to the basement floor and moved her bloody hands away from the floor before she picked up a shard of glass and sliced the side of her head just enough to draw a lot of blood before she laid on the bed, trying to feign unconsciousness.

The area seemed to shake with each step as it drew closer before it stopped in front of her cell door before the sound of a door unlocking was heard. The door swung open to reveal an abnormally tall and large barefoot man with spiky dark green hair and bloodshot, beady eyes. Under his eyes are a pair of dark blue stripes.

He wore a red skirt with a white trim on the bottom edge with a yellow sash tied like a belt around his waist. He also wore blue chest pads as a form of armor, and two black pads on his shoulders and a black headband around his head to hold back his short green hair.

This man looked damn near demonic in appearance.

"The little snack has already done the hard work for me," The ignorant sounding voice said, which made Ino bristle with anger.

"Time to sate this unending hungry," She heard the man say as he took a step forward into the cell.

As if she was made by lightning, Ino's head snapped up as she performed several seals and shouted "Got you! Shintenshin no Jutsu!"

Her body glowed before her spiritual energy shot out from her body and towards the large man. The man looked surprised and tried to dodge but because of his large, bulky size, he was unable to avoid the attack and the energy slammed into his head.

The man's body slumped forward before he straightened out with a smirk. "Mission successful," Ino said as she walked to her inert form and lifted it up then hoisted it over this monster's shoulder.

The lumbering body walked out of the room and back up the stone steps where another person stood, his eyes locked on his right hand as they filed his nails. If Ino didn't know better, she could have mistaken him for a female. "That was qui- Kyōkotsu, why is she still alive and uneaten?" The man asked.

"I decided I wanted to eat outside," she answered, barely hiding her disgusted tone.

The young man eyed him suspiciously before a bright smile appeared on his face. "Even better. My beauty sleep is more assured now. Just don't leave a mess."

"Right," she grunted out. "So tell me, where are the other two prisoners?"

"Dunno," he answered. "Bankotsu hid them at two other locations in case Konoha sent more shinobi to rescue them so even if he got one of them, the other two would still be ours and the only other person who knows is Renkotsu and he ain't telling your dumbass anything."

"Whatever," Ino groused out but inwardly, she was panicked.

How was she going to find them now?

"Now don't you have an annoying blonde to eat? Unless you're going to be a "Mukotsu" and have…."Fun" with her first," the man said to her with a sneer.

Ino felt her heart drop to her stomach at the implication and snarled out "Nah, I'm going to eat this little snack. Don't wait up." Ino walked towards the exit without another word.

She walked two miles out until she saw the village of Sebungēto. Ino felt elation but it was then she began to feel his consciousness awaken. She had to get her body away from this asshole before he tried to force her out.

But had Ino been paying attention, she would have noticed a snake eyeing her down before it slithered away.

And she would have noticed Jakotsu following her as well.

Naruto couldn't sleep.

He hated that he couldn't sleep but thoughts kept him awake.

His date with Hinata.

His unabashed flirting with his sensei.

This mission to save Team 10…

There was a lot on his mind and while he knew he could turn to Menma and Naruko, he couldn't. He just needed to think this one out on his own. He silently crept out of bed and made his way to the living room where he opened the hotel patio doors slowly to keep everything quiet.

He glanced back for a moment and then crept out outside and was immediately met with the cool air. Naruto sighed out and leaned against the railing but in the distance, he noticed something. It was a large hulking figure and it was carried something in its arms.

It was too dark to tell what it was.

"What the hell is that?" Naruto asked himself.

"Ningen!"

Naruto looked down to see a tiny garden snake looking at him on the railing. "I've spotted a Konoha kunoichi. She is being carried by a large hulking man."

"A large…Hulking…" Naruto's head snapped up and saw that the hulking figure had gotten close enough and while he couldn't see the full detail of the person in the figure's arms, he saw the familiar platinum-blonde hair of Yamanaka Ino.

"Kohana-san, wake up my siblings and Anko-sensei. I will go save her," Naruto said before he jumped off the balcony and darted from roof to roof to the large, hulking figure.

Hopefully he could save Ino before anything were to happen.

Captain Blues: And that is the end of this chapter. It's a little shorter than I would like but I'm a little unfamiliar with these villains as they come from Inuyasha and I was unsure of where Rain wanted me to take this as I received this half-done chapter from him and finished the rest.

But the next chapter will involve Naruto and Ino facing down the cannibalistic goliath and maybe Jakotsu as well. But that is it for this one, time to set sail once again!