Towering oaks sprung up from the earth, their branches sprawling out like vines crawling up the side of a rockface. Higher and higher still, the top of the trees poked directly out of the mist barrier surrounding the area. The vicinity at the base of the trees itself had been completely overrun, several branches elevating pieces of debris and pillars off the ground to create an eerie canopy of leaves, glass, metal, and ceramics. And among the rapid growth, Shirou was swept up behind numerous layers of bark, unconscious and unable to really conceal himself.
Tsunade took stock of developments with a shocked heart.
The bark would act as a protective barrier while Shirou's conspicuous position would save her time from having to search for him.
Wood Release was not simply an ordinary bloodline, but one that held significant meaning both to the shinobi world, and for the Senju clan where the bloodline stemmed from the Hidden Leaf's First Hokage.
For it to appear in a non-Senju was unheard of, but considering the close relations the Senju and Uzumaki shared in ancestry, it all but confirmed that this was real. The bloodline of the First Hokage had returned to the Elemental Nations.
Tsunade was ill at ease. That was an understatement. From what knowledge she could gleam from prior observation, bare minimum in objectivity as it was, Kushina's brother was a natural born genius. In fact, she could distinctly remember that he should have been just as untrained as Kushina had been when she first arrived at Hidden Leaf and enrolled in the academy. But then again, this level of capability was truly difficult to explain, something Orochimaru would be better off contemplating rather than her, so she couldn't exactly be a judge in this regard. However, when it came to personal investment, she as the granddaughter of the First Hokage, and a distantly related cousin to the Uzumaki had far more motivation to involve herself.
Whirlpool had always had strong ties with Hidden Leaf, and now that Kushina's brother had revealed not only his possession of the Uzumaki bloodline, but the Wood Release as well, his importance surmounted Leaf's immediate undertakings in the Second Great Shinobi war.
Even Hanzo's stance regarding the battle and Shirou had obviously changed just as much as it had for Tsunade and the others.
Tsunade's sheer impulse to just grab Shirou and flee with Jiraya and Orochimaru was almost overwhelming, but to rationally turn their backs on a shinobi of Hanzo's skill was suicide. It took all their attention and teamwork just to survive against him, but more importantly, it would take all their effort to defend Shirou if Hanzo committed Shirou as his target.
Besides, it wasn't as if this was a losing situation.
The emergence of towering trees to act as a beacon would surely draw in their allies who knew that they'd ventured into the fog barrier. Therefore, they just had to survive until reinforcements could arrive, and with numbers, they'd eventually whittle Hanzo down. Meanwhile, they could use the new terrain to their advantage. None knew combat among the trees better than Leaf shinobi.
Tsunade felt a bead of sweat trickle down her brow, but she didn't so much as move a muscle to wipe it away before she and her teammates dispersed into the cover of the trees.
Jiraya and Orochimaru were in the same boat with her. They'd never been so tense and unnerved against a single enemy before. Naturally, it was because that reaction was warranted. Hanzo alone led the neutral land of Rain against the pressure from warring Great Shinobi Villages.
Then with little fanfare, Hanzo of the Salamander began his dogged attack.
One hand moved over the ventilator over his mouth, before Hanzo's eyes darted towards Shirou, and then reconsidered it. And in doing so, saved Tsunade, Jiraya, and Orochimaru from facing the threat of his poison, but doing little to mitigate the oppressive pressure he exuded.
Familiar hand seals blurred in wake of numerous characters that spread out from the ground beneath Hanzo's feet. If his adversaries were to hide like vermin, frayed nerves and skittish movements denoting their fear, then he would act in his role as the predator flawlessly.
"Summoning Jutsu! Come, Ibuse! Let us ride across this sea of green!"
A giant salamander took to the field, its size and strength pressing against the dense foliage of trees. The wet skin, glossy yet corrosive, ate away and blackened the bark of the trees it propped its limbs against.
"The frog is first," Hanzo looked right up to where Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru were taking cover and threw the weighted end of his kusarigama out. The connecting chains wound around the branches of the trees, and then snapped at the tug of Hanzo's arm.
Jiraiya's position was immediately revealed, much to Tsunade's horror.
"Move you fool!" She called out.
Her voice sounded warbled in Jiraiya's ears, but he knew better than Tsunade of what was coming. His eyes darted up, watching the sharpened blade of Hanzo's kusarigama hooking down from above him.
"Dance of the Sickle Blade!"
"Needle Jizo!"
Jiraiya's hair rapidly grew and hardened to encompass his entire body, the clashing of sparks showering overhead. He was thrown off of his feet, the sickle failing to wound him, yet hooking around him before vertigo kicked in when he was ruthlessly pulled. Distantly, he could hear Tsunade calling out to him in warning. And when his hair gradually retracted back to normal length, and he glanced down to where Hanzo had pulled him towards, he was greeted by a massive salamander's poisonous maw.
He shuddered, blood pumping furiously within his veins as he desperately darted his eyes around in search for some sort of foothold or something to shake him lose from Hanzo's kusarigama.
A tangle of snakes greeted him, hissing and biting down on the Kusarigama's chain, and forcibly altering Jiraiya's trajectory. Rather than land in the salamander's mouth, he crashed into a tree where a pale hand gripped his head and abruptly pushed it down.
A dissatisfied outburst was at the edge of his lips for such rough treatment, but he held it back and winced as several shuriken were embedded in the spot his head used to be. He glanced up at Orochimaru, unable to even get a word of thanks in before Tsunade tackled them both in alarm. A formation of explosive tags had appeared beneath the branch they were standing on, crawling towards them with lit fuses.
The subsequent explosion failed to achieve Hanzo's desired result, causing him to grimace.
"So, you survived that, tree huggers?" Hanzo cocked his head to the side, ignoring the kunai that sailed mere inches away from his neck. "I'd judged you dead, and timed it accordingly."
And he had timed it well indeed. He'd factored in reaction time, reflexes, and even coordination. The exploding flame formation had incinerated everything at its location, the tree splintering into a hollow burnt husk. Then why? His stare narrowed on Tsunade, her back badly charred from the heat of the flames, then he understood. A green aura began to heal Tsunade's back, defiance bleeding in her eyes.
The woman was a healer assured in her own safety through self confidence in her Jutsu. She should have been targeted first.
This time, Hanzo would not make the same mistake.
Chakra flickered in Hanzo's palm, but this time, he wasn't the one to act first.
Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru bit the edge of their thumbs and drew blood.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
A thick wall of smoke blasted across the area, obscuring all visibility, and causing Hanzo to stare at the chakra in his palm, before dismissing it. He'd changed his plan of attack the moment the smoke had cleared and revealed the boss summons of the Toads, Slugs, and Snakes standing opposed to him. He was neither intimidated, nor apprehensive, merely annoyed.
His ears perked up, his nose catching the scent of numerous chakra signatures converging towards his location. He calculated, and again, he remained unperturbed, but understood a single crucial aspect that was the tipping point of his next decision.
He made up his mind.
"You've done well to hold out against me." Hanzo eased his stance, impassive features glinting with many thoughts and consideration that did little to hide his killing intent. "Should you survive, I, Hanzo, will hereby name you 'Hidden Leaf's Sannin.'"
Tension filling the air, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru hardening their resolve.
"Brace yourselves!" Orochimaru warned, attention fully locked onto Hanzo as he slowly raised his Kusarigama.
And then contrary to all expectation, Hanzo gave each a deep look, and promptly retreated atop his salamander's head, everything in his path, corroded away by Ibuse's breath.
Mutedly, the three-leaf shinobi sort of just stood where they were atop their summons. They each had half a mind to question whether they were caught in a Genjutsu, but upon flaring their chakra to no result, they had no choice but to accept what had just played out in utter astonishment.
"He left?" Jiraya whispered hoarsely, sounding like he, himself, couldn't believe it.
"I doubt it was because he was feeling merciful," Orochimaru finally eased his tension and knit his brows. In the same motion, he de-summoned the boss of the Snake summons and promised a sizable meal to appease the giant Manta for summoning him for nothing.
Following Orochimaru's actions, Jiraiya and Tsunade did the same. It was one thing for Hanzo to travel in such a high profile since he was the ruler of Rain, but Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru wouldn't dare do so in enemy territory.
"Whatever Hanzo was thinking, at least he left," Tsunade released a breath she didn't know that she'd been holding, gasping out from the pain of the burns healing over her back. Barely, she managed to stifle the sound, but both of her teammates were too observant for their own good.
"Thanks princess, we owe you one," Jiraiya expressed his gratitude, Orochimaru nodding curtly in the back.
"You owe me a lot, Jiraya," Tsunade quipped, causing Jiraiya's features to sink before she then shook her head at Orochimaru. The number of favours he ever owed her were far and in-between for a prodigy like him. And he'd helped save her from her own fair share of troubles, so they were basically even.
Grunting as she healed the last of her burns, Tsunade readjusted her mind back towards her priorities. Kushina was certainly going to be happ-
"Jiraya, Orochimaru!" she suddenly cried out, her voice ridden with panic when she glanced over to where she knew Shirou had been. "He's gone!"
Considering Shirou's state, it was obvious that he wouldn't have been able to move on his own.
Hanzo was the first suspect, his sudden retreat still in the minds of everyone, so it was only natural to gravitate towards this conclusion, but no. Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru had their focus set on Hanzo the entire time. If he'd made any move to acquire Shirou, they would have fiercely intervened.
By focusing all their attention on Hanzo, it was all but certain that Hanzo wouldn't be able to claim Shirou for himself. However, this had also meant that none of them had the ability to keep an eye on Shirou the entire time due to Hanzo's level of skill.
A third party.
The most likely conclusion was reached first by Orochimaru who narrowed his eyes, and deduced that they shouldn't have gotten far. It was possible that the deed was carried out using a unique skill, or more than likely, physical capabilities alone. Not to be presumptuous, but Orochimaru had faith in himself and his teammates as students of the Third. If chakra had been used, they would have been able to sense it at such a close proximity to the battle even if they weren't sensor types. Given the subtilty in which the act had been executed, it was evident that he or she was far from confident in openly contending against them.
In such a case, the odds of apprehending the perpetrator at large, was high. If they chose to use chakra, they'd give their position away, and if they chose to travel on foot, Orochimaru had various means to track scents with his snakes, let alone with Jiraiya and Tsunade's help.
A rustle in the leaves suddenly drew attention along with the sudden spike in chakra.
Orochimaru, Tsunade, and Jiraiya snapped their gazes up onto a distant tree where a shivering boy carrying Shirou like a sack of potatoes glared at them with obviously false bravado.
For the longest second, everyone just seemed to stare.
Hair, eyes, mouth, baby face, body, they all unmistakably coincided with the image Jiraiya and the rest had in their minds.
Disbelief set in. Oppressive silence so thick that one would never be able to wade in it followed thereafter, impossible to ignore.
"Oi! Stupid granny!"
"Old man!"
"Sleazy pedo!"
It was such an obvious attempt at goading that it wouldn't have ever worked against Tsunade, Orochimaru, or Jiraiya. Period. However, an odd mix of circumstances, disbelief, and the realization that they weren't caught in a Genjutsu changed the meaning of everything for Tsunade more than anyone.
Orochimaru blinked just to make sure, but this really was real.
He was looking at a face that should have been dead, carrying the unconscious target that needed to be secured.
Jiraya and Orochimaru glanced at each other, but were too stunned to react to the boy's provocations. And yet it was different for Tsunade who'd been bottling her grief though action this entire time.
Watching Tsunade's throat bob as she swallowed, and then watching as her collected features began to crumble apart, it was all but clear when her chakra erupted around her like a blazing torch.
The volatile bomb of emotion she'd been repressing, it had exploded.
Konan was, without a better word to describe it, uneasy.
Nawaki was carrying her under one of his arms, and his speed was far above what Konan knew that she herself was capable of. Without him, she really wouldn't have been able to get this far on her own.
Neither she or Nawaki were talking, but she preferred this as she focused on tracking the signal of the paper she'd strapped onto Shirou's clothes before he'd departed. He was close, that was for sure, and of course, it was in place the furthest from normal.
The sight of a verdant forest in Rain astounded Konan more than it did Nawaki, but the rumbling of the ground and the clashing of battle in the distance, greatly muted her response.
Shirou was in there somewhere, and along with him, shinobi he had no right- no right to be contending against.
Drawing from her experience as an orphan well versed in avoiding the attention of shinobi in order to survive, Konan drew in her chakra and made herself small before entering the forest, insisting Nawaki do the same.
Trained as Nawaki was, the action wasn't too difficult, but neither he or Konan could risk getting too close to the fighting.
Sounds of snapped branches that crashed to the ground, followed by reverberations of steel, scratched at the two's nerves to the point that Nawaki didn't dare ease his vigilance. In contrast, Konan's impatience only increased, more and more unsettled at the prospect of Shirou having involved himself in all this.
He'd made a promise to her, and him being here practically signaled that he touted a thin line between whether he could keep his word or not. He promised, so he had to be alive.
She proceeded forward in record time, long since getting Nawaki to let go of her so that the two of them could crawl through the foliage. Neither of them used chakra, and were instead scampering around on their hands and feet, Konan leading as Nawaki followed until their target was within sight.
There he was, held up in the bark of trees. For one reason or another, it seemed like it was tacitly decided that the shinobi fighting would avoid harming the location, but regardless, Konan could care less. He was right there, and she was going to reach him even if she'd never climbed a tree before.
Expectation and determination often differed from reality. The trees were massive, their trunks so large that it was a joke if Konan thought she could wrap her arms and legs around the base and shimmy her way up. She tried regardless; the nearest tree branches too high to reach without chakra. Splinters stabbed into her skin as she attempted to pull herself up to no avail.
Finally, a hand pressed itself on her shoulder, revealing Nawaki whose attention returned to her after making sure the fighting shinobi hadn't noticed them.
"Let me," Nawaki whispered, scampering up the mighty oak as if he was born a monkey.
Konan barely manage to keep herself from clapping in the sheer frustration of her own failure.
Carefully, Nawaki reached Shirou, then peeled Shirou out of the bark, silently lowered him down from the tree until he was passed over to Konan.
Immediately, Konan felt under Shirou's nose, horrified at the state of the injuries over his body. And only when the warmth of his steady breath brushed over her fingers, did Konan somehow manage to alleviate her panicked mind, and return herself to rational composure just in time.
"Jiraiya, Orochimaru! He's gone!"
Both Nawaki and Konan stilled at the voice that echoed in the air, Konan pulling Shirou out of sight along with them. They hadn't been paying attention, but the Shinobi fighting seemed to have stopped. Konan swallowed, thinking that the shinobi may be searching for Shirou to silence him. It was a standard practice for shinobi on covert missions to kill witnesses, especially in times of war.
Shirou was badly wounded, likely caught up in the shinobi's fighting like many orphans in Rain country.
Konan needed to get him out of here, and she had a plan.
Konan, whose concern and apprehension had reached their peak, dared to dupe shinobi she had no hope of contending against so that she may rescue Shirou from this battlefield.
And then she and Nawaki managed to pull off a feat that would surprise even them through a volatile mixture of fatigue, misdirection, and turbulent emotions.
"What should we do?" Nawaki muttered, peeping at the shinobi before glancing back at Konan who was suddenly fiddling with pieces of paper.
Then the paper in her hands shone with a dull blue light before it rapidly expanded over Shirou, covering him from head to toe, before unwrapping itself and forming a life-like paper clone.
Nawaki whistled, before cutting the action off before he could even do it, remembering that he wasn't in a place where he could act so carefree.
"That paper art sure is something else, huh?" He praised before his eyes bugged out. "No wait? What are you doing? N-Now hold on a moment."
Konan directly passed off Shirou's paper clone to Nawaki while whimpering at him for good measure.
"Noooo. Nonono," Nawaki began to back away, simultaneously shoving the paper clone back towards Konan. "You can't be serious? You're asking me to die?!" He hissed.
"Use your brain," Konan hissed back, anxiously making sure that Shirou was still breathing before resuming her focus on Nawaki. "You're our transpo- friend." Konan paused, sighed, and ultimately started again with as much patience as she could muster. "We need you to get out of here. So why would you think you'd be going yourself?"
"Because there's no one else here?"
Konan raised a brow at the obvious.
"…oh." Nawaki paused in consternation before realization and comprehension set in from a glance at Shirou's paper clone, then back at himself. Dammit, he made himself look like a fool. And there and then, a puff of smoke erupted before Nawaki made his own clone to carry out the deed while his original hefted Shirou and Konan up under each arm. "We do not speak of this," he begged and pleaded with Konan.
"I. D. I. O. T." Konan enunciated smilingly, much of her initial distrust of Nawaki beginning to mellow out as Nawaki carefully began sneaking them away to safety.
Meanwhile, the clones left behind were to act as some sort of distraction, not caring if they exposed themselves by flaring their chakra or not.
Different from Konan's paper clone, Nawaki had access to something known as a Shadow Clone taught to him by someone he couldn't quite remember. Regardless, it was exceedingly heavy on chakra, directly dividing his total reserve by the number of clones he created, but in exchange, these clones were perfect copies. Not only did they have personalities, but they were able to execute Jutsu and learn new things.
Already knowing its purpose, and that Nawaki and Konan had likely given their position away by using chakra, the clone took immediate action and decided to expose itself. This would buy Nawaki and Konan enough time to flee.
Carrying Shirou's paper clone, Nawaki's clone propped itself on the branch of a tall tree and hoped he could pull this shit off. Honestly, it didn't feel as if it was very good at pissing people off enough to get High-Jounin level shinobi to chase it, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
The clone sucked in a breath, his voice reverberating through the silent forest.
"Oi! Stupid granny!"
The blond shinobi perked up.
"Old man!"
The white-haired shinobi wasn't laughing.
"Sleazy pedo!"
The last one seemed to be muttering to himself.
If the clone found it odd that a deathly silence stretched as they all just stared at each other, it had no time to dwell on it at all. Honestly, it was terrifying. The looks they were giving it were far from what the clone could have ever expected, let alone account for.
The clone only got to the point of calling names before the complexion of its face had drastically paled and it bolted off.
The woman was on a goddamn war path!
If Nawaki's clone was nimbly evading the obstacles before him in a desperate bid to escape, then the woman head-over-heels-ahead of her teammates was a bulldozer. She toppled the trees obstructing her with a single punch, her eyes an odd mix of relief and retribution.
"Stop!"
As if!
W-What was wrong with this gorilla of a woman?!
While the clone zigged and zagged, the woman went completely straight, the distance between them narrowing rapidly with each second, but not enough to decisively close the distance.
"Why?!" The woman called, her voice breaking. "Why are you running!?"
The clone chanced a look behind it, and instantly snapped its focus back ahead of him with mixed feelings.
What sort of expression is that?
It was a face that seemed on the verge of tears, the expression growing more and more desperate and confused the longer the clone tried to evade capture.
Dammit, dammit, dammit.
It was a trick. It wouldn't fall for it. These leaf shinobi were vicious.
Even if it was a clone, it didn't want to experience whatever torture would befall it from pissing off three High-Jounin level Shinobi.
In the midst of the clone's panic, it suddenly sighed in relief when it noticed Shirou's paper clone begin peeling and understood that its role was accomplished.
Just as the gorilla woman's outstretched hand was about to grip onto the back of its neck like a dead chicken, it and Shirou's clones dispersed in a puff of smoke and paper.
Hell, hath no fury like a woman scorned, and it wasn't even the worst of it...
/-/
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN PULL BACK?!"
Tsunade Senju hoisted up a Nara by the scruff of his neck with indescribable misery. The hidden leaf team Tsunade, Jiraya, and Orochimaru were part of had arrived to reinforce them, using the towering trees as guides. However, upon listening to the details of what had transpired and Tsunade's warbled insistence that she wasn't going anywhere, the one Nara-clan member in the team advised heavily against mounting a search and pursuit.
Dangled like a butchered pig, the Nara felt utterly helpless. Even if he tried to explain, he felt as if the Senju princess would cave his skull in if he failed to appease her. Then, coupled with the expression on Tsunade's face, and well, the Nara felt his odds of living were better if he just kept silent and prayed that she calmed down. How troublesome. Granted, no one present was remotely close to calm given what they discovered from this venture.
The secret hidden in the mist barrier in Rain was far more important than it seemed.
Nevertheless, the Nara remained firm in his stance.
They couldn't risk everyone getting wiped out before they could send word back to Hidden Leaf. Considering that Hanzo was involved, and had pre-emptively retreated first, there was no doubt in the Nara's mind that he'd ordered an encirclement around the mist barrier to keep a lid on recent revelations. Hanzo must have realized that even if he may be able to contend against the entire hidden leaf team on his own, he couldn't guarantee that no one could escape unless he had a proper encirclement.
The longer they spent bickering here, the further Hanzo could muster a strong enough force in a bid to silence everyone and exploit recent discoveries for himself.
As capable as the students of Lord Third were, they weren't presently the lord of Rain's match.
The problem now…was having to explain this to a superior in an irrational state of desperation and distress.
Lord Third help them.
Inevitably, the Nara forced his deductions past Tsunade's impulsiveness, and into the ears of the others.
In the end, they were shinobi, and cold rationality won out despite how hollow the Senju princess's eyes looked to the dismay of her teammates and allies.
They retreated, and as the Nara had expected, Hanzo and a still forming retinue of Rain Shinobi were waiting, chilling the hearts of all. Hanzo really hadn't just chosen to retreat out of a merciful whim, but the opposite. He wanted to make sure that none who traversed into the fog would live to disseminate the news. A bit more time wasted, and none of them would have been able to escape at all. Everyone understood that here and now, they weren't getting out of this without paying a bitter price in order to relay intelligence, regroup, and await further instruction from Hidden Leaf.
A new strategic hotbed had emerged in Rain, and only time would tell of its outcome.
In the end, only three would survive to tell the tale of the weeping rain- about those dead, or left behind.
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