Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the
characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.
Author's Notes: And I blast out another chapter, this is what happens when there are three-day weekends and I'm not doing much. Or maybe it's just that I'm getting to the heart of long anticipated sections. Anyway, I appear to have even beaten the reviews to the punch, oh well. The plot arc switch completes with this admittedly quite lengthy chapter. This plot arc is a small one (much shorter than the last one) but very important, as it will finish setting the stage for the big final plot arc. There's plenty of everything in this chapter I think, action and otherwise (though thank god no duels, I got so sick of writing duels).
As a side note, at the current mark this story is the longest single Naruto story on fanfic.net (surpassed in all only by both parts of There Where When is Now, Books 1 and 2) not bad for a fanfic that doesn't involve the main protagonist at all.
So, thanks to reviewers, and I'd definitely appreciate comments on the many events of this chapter!
The Bleak Passage
The southern road from Hidden Stone is a long and winding passage through the sides of mountains, which gradually slumps down into the grand valley that holds the countries of Grass and Rain, before merging with the grand desert that is the Wind Country. The air at the end of the valley becomes fouled and strange in the country of Rain, but blowing down from the mountains of Stone it is filled with water and creates the verdant plains of Grass country.
Here, in the southern lands of Stone Country, near the turn that brings the road in toward Konoha, the land is empty. There are few villages here on these scrubby hills. Only the grand pastures of wandering shepherds and ranches, tending their livestock and living in small traveling huts for most of the year. Now, in the very beginning of spring, they are out opening the lands with their flocks and herds, so the roads are empty.
Three ninja walk steadily along this road, watchful and ready, but relatively relaxed. They are in an empty land, and the border to Grass Country is some kilometers south. The walk has so far been pleasantly mundane, if cold.
Neji and Shiren walk together behind Xi. The older dragon ninja ignores his students for the most part, watching the landscape intently, looking for any signs. These lands are little patrolled by Stone ninja, especially in this time of year, and Xi suspects that the Grass ninja have been approaching the border regularly. That scheme with Tonetero did not happen in a vacuum. They must be planning to attack someone. If they had won during the exam, as Aburanki Kei's testimony indicated was the intent, they might have reasonably seized a piece of Stone land. That was a troubling possibility, for Xi knew that Grass could not possibly wage a war against Hidden Stone, especially not if that village had the support of Waterfall. The Grass country was not powerful, and Stone was the strongest of all.
It would have been a political ploy, Xi reasoned. Perhaps they planned to offer their support in an attack upon the Fire country in return for withdrawing from annexed lands. That was the possibility that Raikage had whispered to Xi in the moments before they left. Xi had thought it unlikely at first, but then he had considered the politics, and found the possibility quite dire. If Grass had successfully demonstrated its strength in both the exam and in warfare, the possibility would be tempting, especially if Tsuchikage knew just how weak Konoha really was. Xi's discussions with Raikage had indicated Konoha had so far succeeded in obscuring much of its weakness, partly through a strong alliance with Sand. Yet the Akatsuki know, they know the truth, and they are capable of manipulating the situation. The military strength of Konoha and the Sand was destroyed, Lightning's is divided, so that leaves only Stone and Mist, the two strongest remaining countries. Breaking stone would be a tremendous victory for the Akatsuki. Xi grew grim whenever he thought of it, but he had been swift to realize there was an opportunity. If there had been a ploy centered in Grass, then one of the Akatsuki was there. Xi was hoping his southern detour could pick up the trail, and so he remained alert.
Neji and Shiren were unaware of Xi's motives, and did not bother to keep more than a cursory watch about them in this passage. Instead they spent the time talking, learning about each other's pasts, the different villages, and such things. Neji told Shiren about who he had been before encountering Uzemaki Naruto, expecting a harsh judgment from her, but she simply smiled and replied, "We all react to suffering in our own way, and we have all done horrible things." Neji had been hesitant to ask what Shiren considered the crimes of her past, but as he walked beside her in silence for a time, she told him the story, or at least a portion of it.
"Eight years ago, after Lightning was shaken badly by our war, and Raikage-sama became the seventh to rule our village, there were consequences. Myself and others, we were told that our lessons at the academy would end, that we were not to be ninja." Shiren said the words sadly, but the hurt was old, and long passed away. "I wouldn't accept that, and I swore to become a ninja, but I didn't consider what that meant to others. I showed up at the academy one day, and demanded to be let into classes. They tried to throw me out, but I kept coming back. Eventually they let me in, but I was sat at the edge of every room, and always watched by the teacher, a constant distraction. I hurt everyone else by being present, for the teachers would not say things while I was there, would not teach properly. I held back a whole class without knowing it, that was the price I made lightning pay for my stubbornness." Shiren paused, and looked at Neji. "It is very easy to hurt others without knowing it, and without realizing that we know what we are doing and that we o so because we wish to punish them for our fates. We can only try our best to be aware, and to listen when they say things to us." She reached out and grabbed Neji's hand then. "I hope you can listen to what I say, Neji."
Neji nodded softly, and held to Shiren's hand with his own, and they passed much of the rest of the afternoon in silence, walking close together.
Xi, knowing what was going on behind him, had wondered about it. What do I do about this relationship? There was no easy answer. They are hesitant, but the relationship is obvious, that much I can see. Xi recalled that in the past he had been in a similar situation, perhaps. Yes, I can understand what is happening between them, but what do I do? I lost any chance at love eight years ago, so I do not know how to deal with this. Should I allow it? Encourage it? What? The dragon ninja tried not to brood on it, to remain focused on the matter at hand, but the difficulties were not so easily ignored. They are from two different villages, villages not even in alliance, indeed the last war was fought within their lifetimes, in a way they are both children of it. Can this romance be accepted? The matter was further complicated because the young pair behind him were the only two dragon ninja in the world. Xi simply did not know what to do, something he found disturbing. I was always too direct for this sort of thing, he decided. I suppose I will just have to wait and hope. Things are unstable for now, but perhaps there will be a catalyst.
So Xi turned his attention back to the lands south of the road. Tomorrow we pass as close to grass country as we will ever, and then turn east and back to Konoha. So far there have been no leads, but the morning will likely bring a change.
The morning dawned bleak and viscous, cloudy and miserable. It was a deep and dark cloud cover too, where there had been nothing the day before, and the skies to the north rumbled with the possibility of a storm. Xi got his charges up and moving quickly, not even bothering with a short morning training session, sessions that had come to seem increasingly futile. Shiren was on the cusp of learning Rend, and had begun learning Dragon Wind as well, but it would take a full day of solid work for her to master things at least. Neji was still stalled, and Xi was sure he knew the cause by now. He has turned away from the principles of the dragon ninja. It is that simple. He saw the destruction a dragon may wreak, and he almost killed Shiren, so he pushes that part of himself away. He thinks it is being kind, but Neji, you are mistaken. Denial of what you are cannot help you. Yet as before, Xi had few options. He could only try to force the issue somehow, but he did not wish to do so with Shiren around, and there were more important concerns.
The clouds grew darker as the day wore on, and Xi grew uneasy. This is not natural, rain or snow should fall, but the sky is dry. There is something dangerous at work here. Neji and Shiren stood on their guard as well, not needing Xi to tell them that something was amiss. Close to midday it was dark as it would normally be in the late evening, and Xi cautioned the pair. "We are soon to pass by the intersection of roads. Even if this trick of weather does not concern us, that area is likely the center of any danger."
They made the intersection shortly thereafter, an open meeting of dirt roads surrounded by copses of shrubby trees, in a basin between two hills. It was a likely spot for an attack. As Xi stepped into the crossroads the sky shook with thunder, and wind blasted all around him. Even as the dragon ninja reached for his nekode he heard a terrible voice carried upon the wind.
"Stormheart Blackness no Jutsu!"
The clouds suddenly grew black as night, blotting out all light and making everything as inky as pitch.
Xi leaped aside, and heard Neji and Shiren do likewise. "Byakugan!" Neji spat, summoning his perfect sight. Shiren ripped loose a kunai and slammed it into the ground. There it took on a blue glow as charge crackled about it, giving the clearing and surrounding trees a lurid glow that provided just enough light to catch glimpses of metal and motion, as on a cloudy night. Xi felt the chakra surge about him, and he could feel the presence of many ninja, dozens. That did not disturb him much though, not like the jutsu that had just been used, a technique he recognized, though the voice that had used it was unfamiliar to him. It is not she, but who else would use that technique? Xi looked about carefully, tracking the swiftly moving ninja by minute sounds of their movement, and feeling for use of chakra. He felt many presences, and a potent one some distance away, but there was also something else, something Xi could not place. A summoned creature? He wondered, in the instant before things were decided for him.
"Grass element: forest of nettles no Justsu!" A hideous voice cackled, and the three dragon ninja heard the horrifying results.
Between the copses of trees that surrounded this intersection, and over the roads themselves, great vines and tendrils, covered in long and hideous thorns sprouted from the ground, growing so fast as to quickly clog off all routes away.
"That voice..." Shiren began.
"-Impossible." Neji finished.
"Ha, ha ha!" The voice cackled from the south of them, and Neji, gifted with the Byakugan, was able to see it clearly. A tall figure, standing lightly upon the torrent of nettles he had summoned, a figure coated in thorns and with those long wooden weapons protruding from his very flesh. Tonetero!
The grass ninja stopped his cackling for a moment, and then gasped and fell to the ground, his nettle support severed, and his body followed. A swarm of thorns flashed out to protect him below, but he could not move fast enough, and the attack was pointed at his head.
"Back Rake!" Xi's feet flipped over in midair, so that they connected with Tonetero's head and neck even as the rest of his body remained below. Those feet walked down the back of the grass ninja's thorn-covered skull, driving their razor sharp awls of chakra into his body, perforating it with holes.
"You shouldn't reveal yourself." Xi muttered, and then saw that no blood came out. "Damn!" He spat, and flipped up through the air, to land back in front of Shiren and Neji.
"What's happening Xi?" They asked, having just seen the impossible occur. "How is he alive, what happened?"
"We are surrounded by at least twenty-five grass ninja." Xi answered coldly. 'They have encircled us and block off any escape. Worse, one of the Akatsuki is here."
"What?" Neji managed, still holding his guard ready, for he had seen the grass ninja moving in the trees, and was expecting attack.
"Watch." Xi pointed at the body of Tonetero, and the three ninja observed a cloud of flesh that had been kicked out of his head slowly flutter back to his body and gradually close the wounds completely. Tonetero stood before them perfectly unharmed and laughing.
"What is this technique?" Shiren whispered, the fear evident in her voice.
"Edo Tensei." Xi snapped off the answer. "He has been brought back from the dead through the sacrifice of another. The body you see cannot be killed, only absolutely destroyed."
"An excellent deduction, Draci Xi." The voice was harsh and villainous, and seemed to come from everywhere at once, something easily recognizable as a simple genjutsu. "Pity it won't help you."
"You're the one then," Xi accused, ignoring the jibe. "The one who incited Waterfall, who recreated the Echiri bloodline in that insane boy, who has been trying to start a war."
"And start a war I shall, even if it was not the one I originally intended." The Akatsuki said, speaking from everywhere and nowhere. "Your deaths will incite a conflict between grass and stone, and lightning will become involved as well. A few judicious incidents inflicted upon traveling lightning armies will be enough to start anew the war between Lightning and the Leaf. It is all very simple."
"Humph, I recognize such scheming, it has all of her trademarks." Xi smiled with satisfaction. "Given what I know of the Akatsuki you must be the lesser member of her pair. Good, when I catch you I will learn all I need to track her down."
"Such bravado." The voice laughed in sickening glee. "Not at all what I expected from the supposedly quiet dragon ninja. But you seem to be looking at this the wrong way; you are outnumbered, trapped, and faced with an enemy you cannot possibly kill. Your doom is sealed."
Xi did not reply, he was considering his options. The Akatsuki has planned this trap too well, he thought. I could destroy Tonetero with dragon breath, but only if his defenses were swept away, such as when he is regenerating. With this many grass ninja present, and with you watching, Akatsuki, there is no time for such things. Xi considered this quickly and then made a decision. If victory is impossible...then. "Shiren, Neji, break north and go, do not stop until you are sure you are safe. I will stop them here and join you later. Now, go!"
The other two responded immediately to his commands, and Xi himself blasted forward. Kunai and shuriken rained down from the trees, but Xi dodged and weaved among them expertly, avoiding the strikes, though he was forced to the side.
Shiren ducked and slid upon the ground, and Neji reacted as he knew he must. "Kaiten!"
The spin blasted away all the attacks, returning them among the original throwers, and Shiren escaped beneath them all, having anticipated his movements perfectly.
Shiren leapt up immediately, heading toward the wall of nettles to the north, but she found her path blocked. Grass ninja, fifteen or more, had dropped from the trees and stood all about them. They held weapons ready and appeared quite skilled. Neji stood back to back with Shiren, considering their options. We're trapped. Neji thought.
Xi lurched aside, and spun through the trees as he moved. His senses caught the movement of two grass ninja and he landed before them. They raised kunai, but his nekode slipped under their guard faster than they could react, the move going precisely where they believe he could not make it go. Nekode ripped into both, and Xi pulled them forward, pulling his weapons out and raking them over two throats in a single motion, even as he leapt up to avoid a hail of thorns that impaled the dying ninja. From the corner of his eye Xi saw Shiren and Neji surrounded, even as he spun away from another of Tonetero's attacks and slammed a kunai into a grass ninja's eyes. This is bad, very bad. I expected an ambush, but not this unkillable foe.
"It seems things will not work out as you wished, Draci Xi!" The Akatsuki taunted.
Damn it! Xi thought, dodging another attack. I could escape easily enough, but without me to occupy Tonetero Neji and Shiren will surely die, and the Akatsuki has yet to act. Damn it, there's no time to summon a dragon! Xi found himself at a loss for a solution, and he felt a stab of agony as he realized he was about to watch his students die.
The Akatsuki's laughter carried over the black clearing, only to suddenly be overwhelmed.
"Flare!"
Brilliant light burst into the crossroads, blinding everything. Xi reacted instantly; even as his sight was taken, leaping backwards and crossing the path of a hesitant grass ninja. He cut the man down mercilessly, bringing rend through his chest. Catching a sudden sound he reacted to move onto the next.
Tonetero howled, unable to see he was unable to direct his thorns, and the wailing corpse recognized its vulnerability.
Neji and Shiren reacted to the blinding light differently. Shiren crouched down, holding her weapons ready, but unable to identify friend from foe over the sounds of melee.
Neji, not blinded at all by virtue of his Byakugan, saw the whole instantly clearly.
The cry of flare came from another ninja, and the blast of light surged from a ninja-to, the straight ninja sword, streaking into the clearing from above, to slice clean through one of the grass ninja surrounding them. The weapon was wielded by a ninja in the garb of Hidden Stone, a man that Neji recognized, once he could take his eyes of the sword.
The blade that glowed now with the sun's own fire was not made of steel, but was a slim extension of transparent crystal, a blade that seemed as sharp as the chakra blades brought forth by rend. Blood flew free of the ninja that had been cut down, but none stuck to that crystalline sword.
Neji blinked for a moment, something he never did, to keep the image of that weapon from burning into his mind. As his eyes opened again he saw the stone ninja, the young man Xi had named Kataishi Dar, cross to the next grass ninja in a single motion, sweep aside the blinded ninja's clumsy block, and cut a lethal arc across his body. Dar did not pause, but moved on to the next ninja.
The sight galvanized Neji into motion, and he shot forward, slamming his palms into two grass ninja still trying to recover from the blindly attack. Neji brought his palms across, and though he could have smashed the chakra circulatory system over the heart, killed the vulnerable men, he hesitated, and then at the last struck blows to the lungs instead, knocking them to the ground gasping.
The Akatsuki was not slow to react to this development. "All-illusion dispel!" The quickest and most thorough way to blast apart Dar's technique took down his own as well, but likely it seemed unimportant, except, that in that moment Xi tracked the Akatsuki's voice, and he knew.
Above. A single instant was all Xi needed to take in the situation. "Dar cut them free and go!" He commanded. "I'll handle this."
The stone chuunin did not pause, but slashed at another of the grass ninja. This one had a kunai in position to block, but Dar's crystalline blade cut through the weapon as if it were butter, and went on to score a deep gash in the man. Neji and Shiren joined the fight now, and the Grass ninja suddenly found the tables turned. It had been fifteen surrounding two, but now a mere eleven surrounded three, and those numbers went down again as Spark stars enveloped two of the ninja who had thought to dodge aside from Neji's crushing hands.
Xi leapt up, his feet finding a solid tree branch and gathering enough chakra to rocket him skyward, slamming the branch free of its tree with a sickening crack and sending it to the ground even as he rose up.
The dark-mantled Akatsuki stood poised on the highest tree branch, a tall, thin man who wore the forehead protector of Sand country, with a cruel slash through it. Long scars extended sideways from his eyes to wrap around his head, crossing over the ears and cutting a line through his inky black hair. Xi recognized him instantly. Mehize Kizen, the mummifier.
Seeing the streaking Xi come towards him Kizen simply stepped aside, leaping to another treetop and pulling out his weapons.
Wrong move, Xi thought with grim satisfaction, she didn't teach you enough. Chakra contorted in Xi's body, and he twisted in midair, suddenly moving in a completely different direction than he had been before, yet still closing directly at Kizen. Xi's hands, their sharp nekode extended, reached toward him.
The Akatsuki pivoted, and slashed in with his own weapon, an effective maneuver to push his foe back, but Xi simply grabbed the kunai in his left hand, letting the sharp weapon cut straight down to the bone, ignoring the pain as he flipped the nekode free of his right hand and brought that hand forward.
Two fingers tapped the Akatsuki's chest. "Dragon Fang!" Xi hissed, a tremendous blast of chakra scissored out from his fingers, punching in like a terrifyingly sharp drill, and not caring at all for the resistance of the flesh.
A cylindrical hole exactly two inches wide emerged in the center of Kizen's chest, just as if he had been pierced by the razor fang of a dragon, and blood gushed from his mouth, but he managed to jump backwards, and his hands moved with a dying man's strength.
Xi moved to follow, but a pair of Grass ninja came up from below at that moment. Xi flipped forward, spinning in the air, and coming out with both hands extended. "Dragon Wind!" He released the knotted torrents of chakra from his hands, slamming the full power of a dragon's passing into the grass ninja, shattering ribs and sending their broken bodies to slam into the ground with lethal force.
Wasting no time, Xi looked up again, and what he saw horrified him. Mehize Kizen vomited a gob of flesh out of his mouth, and placed it on his chest, and that fleshy mass crawled into the hole Xi had made, sealing it as if new skin was growing there. Color returned to Kizen's face, and he gave Xi a hideous grin. "That was unpleasant, now I know why she hates you so much." Kizen leapt backward and was gone. Xi almost stepped forward to pursue, but recognized that he had other problems, and so turned back.
What he saw confirmed his fears.
Dar, Neji and Shiren had managed to defeat many of the grass ninja, but Tonetero had acted, sacrificing the others merely to buy time. As Xi watched endless vines, all covered in spiky thorns, shot out from the ground, enveloping the whole area where the three chuunin stood. Tonetero stood aside, hands holding the seal and a sphere of protective thorns whirling about him.
The trio slashed and hacked at the vines, Dar's sword slicing them apart as nothing, Shiren's lightning charged weapons burning through great swaths, and Neji simply disintegrating the vines using his own chakra, but it could not last. Even as Xi turned to engage Tonetero vines curled themselves over Dar's left foot, and when he moved to slash them loose new vines grasped his sword arm, immobilizing him. Vines wrapped around Neji and Shiren in great torrents, submerging them under the sea of green as Tonetero laughed in hideous glee. Just as he lost sight of the stone ninja Xi saw Dar struggling to bring his hands together, attempting to form a seal.
Goddamn you, undying monster, wasn't it enough to kill you once? Xi lunged down at the protective globe of thorns that enclosed Tonetero, slamming aside mercilessly a grass ninja who tried to stop him, using dragon's fang to blast a gaping hole in the man's shoulder. Xi brought his hands up in a familiar pattern of seals, and then brought his hands to his mouth, thumbs and pairs of fingers linked, and likewise spread. "Dragon breath no jutsu!"
The hideous blast of lightning arced from Xi's mouth as if slamming down at the earth from the heavens. Tonetero's thorns moved to block it though, and even as the lightning incinerated its way through them more and more thorns moved into the path, hundreds of sharp wooden cinders fell away, burnt to nothing, it was not enough to block the titanic force of that chakra hungry dragon jutsu, but it was enough to slow the blast long enough that Tonetero simply stepped aside and it passed by harmlessly.
"Bastard!" Xi howled, and he slammed into the standing corpse, raking kunai across his back and pushing him down to the ground. He knew it wasn't enough, but it bought at least a moment, a moment when that sea of green vines weakened.
"Kaiten!" Neji screamed the jutsu and spun free of the vines, a circular tunnel of emptiness now stood in the middle of that sea of green.
"Rose Facet Spin!" Like some viscous dicing blade the figure of Kataishi Dar slashed a great swath loose in a complex spinning pattern, and shot up into the air.
Xi saw these two free themselves and he felt his breath quicken, but then his eyes seized over to the place where Shiren was bound.
The remaining Grass ninja stood there, at least a dozen, and one held a figure wrapped in vines, the struggling form of Shiren.
"No!" Neji screamed, and moved toward her. "Shiren!"
Shiren gasped something that was lost in the shouts of the grass ninja and the hissing noise of Tonetero summoning the wall of thorns back to his body, far from defeated.
Damn, damn, damn! They have her! Xi thought, but he could do nothing. There are too many, and nothing has been settled. "Neji, Dar, escape north, now!" He shouted, and followed his command with actions.
"No!" Neji retorted. "I will get Shiren back!" He said this even as two more grass ninja, the two Neji recalled slamming to the ground only moments before, stood up and interposed themselves between him and those who were hauling Shiren away behind Tonetero's screen of thorns. She struggled, but was unable to make her arms move against those vines, and could do nothing.
"Shut up Neji!" Xi demanded, hurling shuriken to scatter the Grass ninja. He hit the ground in front of Neji. "This battle is a loss, we must go."
"No!" Neji said, his voice gone almost totally hollow. "I won't leave Shiren."
There's no time for this. Xi pulled back him right hand, and slammed it into Neji's stomach, Neji, unaware of anything beyond Shiren's receding form, took the blow and collapsed forward. "Dar, cover me." Xi ordered, and grabbed Neji and leapt over the wall of vines and nettles.
"Earth element: Pillars of Stone no jutsu!" Dar slammed the tip of his sword into the ground, and great spikes of stone sprang up in a wall before him, blocking the grass ninja from view. The spikes were not particularly strong or tall, but they were enough. Dar leapt after Xi quickly.
Moments later the three ninja were passing hurriedly through the scrublands, traveling north in a zigzag pattern to avoid pursuit. Xi put Neji down, and the young dragon ninja almost mindlessly propelled himself forward, but his attention was elsewhere.
Dar came up on the side of Xi. "My apologies for following you." He said quickly.
"That's not important right now." Xi remarked. "Do you know a sheltered area near here?"
"There is a boulder field on a hill to the north, I was tracking you from there earlier." Dar answered.
"Then we will head there, discussion can wait." Xi said simply, but his face was grim. He looked over at Neji to his right. This is bad, too many things have happened today, and your failure Neji, is perhaps the most important of them. It seems this will be the moment of truth. Xi steeled himself then, forcing himself to harden his gaze and remember the eight years alone and his true mission. The memory of Mehize Kizen, the Akatsuki who served the one he sought, was more than enough. I will not be forgiven for this, Neji, but dragons are unforgiving.
Author's Notes: And I blast out another chapter, this is what happens when there are three-day weekends and I'm not doing much. Or maybe it's just that I'm getting to the heart of long anticipated sections. Anyway, I appear to have even beaten the reviews to the punch, oh well. The plot arc switch completes with this admittedly quite lengthy chapter. This plot arc is a small one (much shorter than the last one) but very important, as it will finish setting the stage for the big final plot arc. There's plenty of everything in this chapter I think, action and otherwise (though thank god no duels, I got so sick of writing duels).
As a side note, at the current mark this story is the longest single Naruto story on fanfic.net (surpassed in all only by both parts of There Where When is Now, Books 1 and 2) not bad for a fanfic that doesn't involve the main protagonist at all.
So, thanks to reviewers, and I'd definitely appreciate comments on the many events of this chapter!
The Bleak Passage
The southern road from Hidden Stone is a long and winding passage through the sides of mountains, which gradually slumps down into the grand valley that holds the countries of Grass and Rain, before merging with the grand desert that is the Wind Country. The air at the end of the valley becomes fouled and strange in the country of Rain, but blowing down from the mountains of Stone it is filled with water and creates the verdant plains of Grass country.
Here, in the southern lands of Stone Country, near the turn that brings the road in toward Konoha, the land is empty. There are few villages here on these scrubby hills. Only the grand pastures of wandering shepherds and ranches, tending their livestock and living in small traveling huts for most of the year. Now, in the very beginning of spring, they are out opening the lands with their flocks and herds, so the roads are empty.
Three ninja walk steadily along this road, watchful and ready, but relatively relaxed. They are in an empty land, and the border to Grass Country is some kilometers south. The walk has so far been pleasantly mundane, if cold.
Neji and Shiren walk together behind Xi. The older dragon ninja ignores his students for the most part, watching the landscape intently, looking for any signs. These lands are little patrolled by Stone ninja, especially in this time of year, and Xi suspects that the Grass ninja have been approaching the border regularly. That scheme with Tonetero did not happen in a vacuum. They must be planning to attack someone. If they had won during the exam, as Aburanki Kei's testimony indicated was the intent, they might have reasonably seized a piece of Stone land. That was a troubling possibility, for Xi knew that Grass could not possibly wage a war against Hidden Stone, especially not if that village had the support of Waterfall. The Grass country was not powerful, and Stone was the strongest of all.
It would have been a political ploy, Xi reasoned. Perhaps they planned to offer their support in an attack upon the Fire country in return for withdrawing from annexed lands. That was the possibility that Raikage had whispered to Xi in the moments before they left. Xi had thought it unlikely at first, but then he had considered the politics, and found the possibility quite dire. If Grass had successfully demonstrated its strength in both the exam and in warfare, the possibility would be tempting, especially if Tsuchikage knew just how weak Konoha really was. Xi's discussions with Raikage had indicated Konoha had so far succeeded in obscuring much of its weakness, partly through a strong alliance with Sand. Yet the Akatsuki know, they know the truth, and they are capable of manipulating the situation. The military strength of Konoha and the Sand was destroyed, Lightning's is divided, so that leaves only Stone and Mist, the two strongest remaining countries. Breaking stone would be a tremendous victory for the Akatsuki. Xi grew grim whenever he thought of it, but he had been swift to realize there was an opportunity. If there had been a ploy centered in Grass, then one of the Akatsuki was there. Xi was hoping his southern detour could pick up the trail, and so he remained alert.
Neji and Shiren were unaware of Xi's motives, and did not bother to keep more than a cursory watch about them in this passage. Instead they spent the time talking, learning about each other's pasts, the different villages, and such things. Neji told Shiren about who he had been before encountering Uzemaki Naruto, expecting a harsh judgment from her, but she simply smiled and replied, "We all react to suffering in our own way, and we have all done horrible things." Neji had been hesitant to ask what Shiren considered the crimes of her past, but as he walked beside her in silence for a time, she told him the story, or at least a portion of it.
"Eight years ago, after Lightning was shaken badly by our war, and Raikage-sama became the seventh to rule our village, there were consequences. Myself and others, we were told that our lessons at the academy would end, that we were not to be ninja." Shiren said the words sadly, but the hurt was old, and long passed away. "I wouldn't accept that, and I swore to become a ninja, but I didn't consider what that meant to others. I showed up at the academy one day, and demanded to be let into classes. They tried to throw me out, but I kept coming back. Eventually they let me in, but I was sat at the edge of every room, and always watched by the teacher, a constant distraction. I hurt everyone else by being present, for the teachers would not say things while I was there, would not teach properly. I held back a whole class without knowing it, that was the price I made lightning pay for my stubbornness." Shiren paused, and looked at Neji. "It is very easy to hurt others without knowing it, and without realizing that we know what we are doing and that we o so because we wish to punish them for our fates. We can only try our best to be aware, and to listen when they say things to us." She reached out and grabbed Neji's hand then. "I hope you can listen to what I say, Neji."
Neji nodded softly, and held to Shiren's hand with his own, and they passed much of the rest of the afternoon in silence, walking close together.
Xi, knowing what was going on behind him, had wondered about it. What do I do about this relationship? There was no easy answer. They are hesitant, but the relationship is obvious, that much I can see. Xi recalled that in the past he had been in a similar situation, perhaps. Yes, I can understand what is happening between them, but what do I do? I lost any chance at love eight years ago, so I do not know how to deal with this. Should I allow it? Encourage it? What? The dragon ninja tried not to brood on it, to remain focused on the matter at hand, but the difficulties were not so easily ignored. They are from two different villages, villages not even in alliance, indeed the last war was fought within their lifetimes, in a way they are both children of it. Can this romance be accepted? The matter was further complicated because the young pair behind him were the only two dragon ninja in the world. Xi simply did not know what to do, something he found disturbing. I was always too direct for this sort of thing, he decided. I suppose I will just have to wait and hope. Things are unstable for now, but perhaps there will be a catalyst.
So Xi turned his attention back to the lands south of the road. Tomorrow we pass as close to grass country as we will ever, and then turn east and back to Konoha. So far there have been no leads, but the morning will likely bring a change.
The morning dawned bleak and viscous, cloudy and miserable. It was a deep and dark cloud cover too, where there had been nothing the day before, and the skies to the north rumbled with the possibility of a storm. Xi got his charges up and moving quickly, not even bothering with a short morning training session, sessions that had come to seem increasingly futile. Shiren was on the cusp of learning Rend, and had begun learning Dragon Wind as well, but it would take a full day of solid work for her to master things at least. Neji was still stalled, and Xi was sure he knew the cause by now. He has turned away from the principles of the dragon ninja. It is that simple. He saw the destruction a dragon may wreak, and he almost killed Shiren, so he pushes that part of himself away. He thinks it is being kind, but Neji, you are mistaken. Denial of what you are cannot help you. Yet as before, Xi had few options. He could only try to force the issue somehow, but he did not wish to do so with Shiren around, and there were more important concerns.
The clouds grew darker as the day wore on, and Xi grew uneasy. This is not natural, rain or snow should fall, but the sky is dry. There is something dangerous at work here. Neji and Shiren stood on their guard as well, not needing Xi to tell them that something was amiss. Close to midday it was dark as it would normally be in the late evening, and Xi cautioned the pair. "We are soon to pass by the intersection of roads. Even if this trick of weather does not concern us, that area is likely the center of any danger."
They made the intersection shortly thereafter, an open meeting of dirt roads surrounded by copses of shrubby trees, in a basin between two hills. It was a likely spot for an attack. As Xi stepped into the crossroads the sky shook with thunder, and wind blasted all around him. Even as the dragon ninja reached for his nekode he heard a terrible voice carried upon the wind.
"Stormheart Blackness no Jutsu!"
The clouds suddenly grew black as night, blotting out all light and making everything as inky as pitch.
Xi leaped aside, and heard Neji and Shiren do likewise. "Byakugan!" Neji spat, summoning his perfect sight. Shiren ripped loose a kunai and slammed it into the ground. There it took on a blue glow as charge crackled about it, giving the clearing and surrounding trees a lurid glow that provided just enough light to catch glimpses of metal and motion, as on a cloudy night. Xi felt the chakra surge about him, and he could feel the presence of many ninja, dozens. That did not disturb him much though, not like the jutsu that had just been used, a technique he recognized, though the voice that had used it was unfamiliar to him. It is not she, but who else would use that technique? Xi looked about carefully, tracking the swiftly moving ninja by minute sounds of their movement, and feeling for use of chakra. He felt many presences, and a potent one some distance away, but there was also something else, something Xi could not place. A summoned creature? He wondered, in the instant before things were decided for him.
"Grass element: forest of nettles no Justsu!" A hideous voice cackled, and the three dragon ninja heard the horrifying results.
Between the copses of trees that surrounded this intersection, and over the roads themselves, great vines and tendrils, covered in long and hideous thorns sprouted from the ground, growing so fast as to quickly clog off all routes away.
"That voice..." Shiren began.
"-Impossible." Neji finished.
"Ha, ha ha!" The voice cackled from the south of them, and Neji, gifted with the Byakugan, was able to see it clearly. A tall figure, standing lightly upon the torrent of nettles he had summoned, a figure coated in thorns and with those long wooden weapons protruding from his very flesh. Tonetero!
The grass ninja stopped his cackling for a moment, and then gasped and fell to the ground, his nettle support severed, and his body followed. A swarm of thorns flashed out to protect him below, but he could not move fast enough, and the attack was pointed at his head.
"Back Rake!" Xi's feet flipped over in midair, so that they connected with Tonetero's head and neck even as the rest of his body remained below. Those feet walked down the back of the grass ninja's thorn-covered skull, driving their razor sharp awls of chakra into his body, perforating it with holes.
"You shouldn't reveal yourself." Xi muttered, and then saw that no blood came out. "Damn!" He spat, and flipped up through the air, to land back in front of Shiren and Neji.
"What's happening Xi?" They asked, having just seen the impossible occur. "How is he alive, what happened?"
"We are surrounded by at least twenty-five grass ninja." Xi answered coldly. 'They have encircled us and block off any escape. Worse, one of the Akatsuki is here."
"What?" Neji managed, still holding his guard ready, for he had seen the grass ninja moving in the trees, and was expecting attack.
"Watch." Xi pointed at the body of Tonetero, and the three ninja observed a cloud of flesh that had been kicked out of his head slowly flutter back to his body and gradually close the wounds completely. Tonetero stood before them perfectly unharmed and laughing.
"What is this technique?" Shiren whispered, the fear evident in her voice.
"Edo Tensei." Xi snapped off the answer. "He has been brought back from the dead through the sacrifice of another. The body you see cannot be killed, only absolutely destroyed."
"An excellent deduction, Draci Xi." The voice was harsh and villainous, and seemed to come from everywhere at once, something easily recognizable as a simple genjutsu. "Pity it won't help you."
"You're the one then," Xi accused, ignoring the jibe. "The one who incited Waterfall, who recreated the Echiri bloodline in that insane boy, who has been trying to start a war."
"And start a war I shall, even if it was not the one I originally intended." The Akatsuki said, speaking from everywhere and nowhere. "Your deaths will incite a conflict between grass and stone, and lightning will become involved as well. A few judicious incidents inflicted upon traveling lightning armies will be enough to start anew the war between Lightning and the Leaf. It is all very simple."
"Humph, I recognize such scheming, it has all of her trademarks." Xi smiled with satisfaction. "Given what I know of the Akatsuki you must be the lesser member of her pair. Good, when I catch you I will learn all I need to track her down."
"Such bravado." The voice laughed in sickening glee. "Not at all what I expected from the supposedly quiet dragon ninja. But you seem to be looking at this the wrong way; you are outnumbered, trapped, and faced with an enemy you cannot possibly kill. Your doom is sealed."
Xi did not reply, he was considering his options. The Akatsuki has planned this trap too well, he thought. I could destroy Tonetero with dragon breath, but only if his defenses were swept away, such as when he is regenerating. With this many grass ninja present, and with you watching, Akatsuki, there is no time for such things. Xi considered this quickly and then made a decision. If victory is impossible...then. "Shiren, Neji, break north and go, do not stop until you are sure you are safe. I will stop them here and join you later. Now, go!"
The other two responded immediately to his commands, and Xi himself blasted forward. Kunai and shuriken rained down from the trees, but Xi dodged and weaved among them expertly, avoiding the strikes, though he was forced to the side.
Shiren ducked and slid upon the ground, and Neji reacted as he knew he must. "Kaiten!"
The spin blasted away all the attacks, returning them among the original throwers, and Shiren escaped beneath them all, having anticipated his movements perfectly.
Shiren leapt up immediately, heading toward the wall of nettles to the north, but she found her path blocked. Grass ninja, fifteen or more, had dropped from the trees and stood all about them. They held weapons ready and appeared quite skilled. Neji stood back to back with Shiren, considering their options. We're trapped. Neji thought.
Xi lurched aside, and spun through the trees as he moved. His senses caught the movement of two grass ninja and he landed before them. They raised kunai, but his nekode slipped under their guard faster than they could react, the move going precisely where they believe he could not make it go. Nekode ripped into both, and Xi pulled them forward, pulling his weapons out and raking them over two throats in a single motion, even as he leapt up to avoid a hail of thorns that impaled the dying ninja. From the corner of his eye Xi saw Shiren and Neji surrounded, even as he spun away from another of Tonetero's attacks and slammed a kunai into a grass ninja's eyes. This is bad, very bad. I expected an ambush, but not this unkillable foe.
"It seems things will not work out as you wished, Draci Xi!" The Akatsuki taunted.
Damn it! Xi thought, dodging another attack. I could escape easily enough, but without me to occupy Tonetero Neji and Shiren will surely die, and the Akatsuki has yet to act. Damn it, there's no time to summon a dragon! Xi found himself at a loss for a solution, and he felt a stab of agony as he realized he was about to watch his students die.
The Akatsuki's laughter carried over the black clearing, only to suddenly be overwhelmed.
"Flare!"
Brilliant light burst into the crossroads, blinding everything. Xi reacted instantly; even as his sight was taken, leaping backwards and crossing the path of a hesitant grass ninja. He cut the man down mercilessly, bringing rend through his chest. Catching a sudden sound he reacted to move onto the next.
Tonetero howled, unable to see he was unable to direct his thorns, and the wailing corpse recognized its vulnerability.
Neji and Shiren reacted to the blinding light differently. Shiren crouched down, holding her weapons ready, but unable to identify friend from foe over the sounds of melee.
Neji, not blinded at all by virtue of his Byakugan, saw the whole instantly clearly.
The cry of flare came from another ninja, and the blast of light surged from a ninja-to, the straight ninja sword, streaking into the clearing from above, to slice clean through one of the grass ninja surrounding them. The weapon was wielded by a ninja in the garb of Hidden Stone, a man that Neji recognized, once he could take his eyes of the sword.
The blade that glowed now with the sun's own fire was not made of steel, but was a slim extension of transparent crystal, a blade that seemed as sharp as the chakra blades brought forth by rend. Blood flew free of the ninja that had been cut down, but none stuck to that crystalline sword.
Neji blinked for a moment, something he never did, to keep the image of that weapon from burning into his mind. As his eyes opened again he saw the stone ninja, the young man Xi had named Kataishi Dar, cross to the next grass ninja in a single motion, sweep aside the blinded ninja's clumsy block, and cut a lethal arc across his body. Dar did not pause, but moved on to the next ninja.
The sight galvanized Neji into motion, and he shot forward, slamming his palms into two grass ninja still trying to recover from the blindly attack. Neji brought his palms across, and though he could have smashed the chakra circulatory system over the heart, killed the vulnerable men, he hesitated, and then at the last struck blows to the lungs instead, knocking them to the ground gasping.
The Akatsuki was not slow to react to this development. "All-illusion dispel!" The quickest and most thorough way to blast apart Dar's technique took down his own as well, but likely it seemed unimportant, except, that in that moment Xi tracked the Akatsuki's voice, and he knew.
Above. A single instant was all Xi needed to take in the situation. "Dar cut them free and go!" He commanded. "I'll handle this."
The stone chuunin did not pause, but slashed at another of the grass ninja. This one had a kunai in position to block, but Dar's crystalline blade cut through the weapon as if it were butter, and went on to score a deep gash in the man. Neji and Shiren joined the fight now, and the Grass ninja suddenly found the tables turned. It had been fifteen surrounding two, but now a mere eleven surrounded three, and those numbers went down again as Spark stars enveloped two of the ninja who had thought to dodge aside from Neji's crushing hands.
Xi leapt up, his feet finding a solid tree branch and gathering enough chakra to rocket him skyward, slamming the branch free of its tree with a sickening crack and sending it to the ground even as he rose up.
The dark-mantled Akatsuki stood poised on the highest tree branch, a tall, thin man who wore the forehead protector of Sand country, with a cruel slash through it. Long scars extended sideways from his eyes to wrap around his head, crossing over the ears and cutting a line through his inky black hair. Xi recognized him instantly. Mehize Kizen, the mummifier.
Seeing the streaking Xi come towards him Kizen simply stepped aside, leaping to another treetop and pulling out his weapons.
Wrong move, Xi thought with grim satisfaction, she didn't teach you enough. Chakra contorted in Xi's body, and he twisted in midair, suddenly moving in a completely different direction than he had been before, yet still closing directly at Kizen. Xi's hands, their sharp nekode extended, reached toward him.
The Akatsuki pivoted, and slashed in with his own weapon, an effective maneuver to push his foe back, but Xi simply grabbed the kunai in his left hand, letting the sharp weapon cut straight down to the bone, ignoring the pain as he flipped the nekode free of his right hand and brought that hand forward.
Two fingers tapped the Akatsuki's chest. "Dragon Fang!" Xi hissed, a tremendous blast of chakra scissored out from his fingers, punching in like a terrifyingly sharp drill, and not caring at all for the resistance of the flesh.
A cylindrical hole exactly two inches wide emerged in the center of Kizen's chest, just as if he had been pierced by the razor fang of a dragon, and blood gushed from his mouth, but he managed to jump backwards, and his hands moved with a dying man's strength.
Xi moved to follow, but a pair of Grass ninja came up from below at that moment. Xi flipped forward, spinning in the air, and coming out with both hands extended. "Dragon Wind!" He released the knotted torrents of chakra from his hands, slamming the full power of a dragon's passing into the grass ninja, shattering ribs and sending their broken bodies to slam into the ground with lethal force.
Wasting no time, Xi looked up again, and what he saw horrified him. Mehize Kizen vomited a gob of flesh out of his mouth, and placed it on his chest, and that fleshy mass crawled into the hole Xi had made, sealing it as if new skin was growing there. Color returned to Kizen's face, and he gave Xi a hideous grin. "That was unpleasant, now I know why she hates you so much." Kizen leapt backward and was gone. Xi almost stepped forward to pursue, but recognized that he had other problems, and so turned back.
What he saw confirmed his fears.
Dar, Neji and Shiren had managed to defeat many of the grass ninja, but Tonetero had acted, sacrificing the others merely to buy time. As Xi watched endless vines, all covered in spiky thorns, shot out from the ground, enveloping the whole area where the three chuunin stood. Tonetero stood aside, hands holding the seal and a sphere of protective thorns whirling about him.
The trio slashed and hacked at the vines, Dar's sword slicing them apart as nothing, Shiren's lightning charged weapons burning through great swaths, and Neji simply disintegrating the vines using his own chakra, but it could not last. Even as Xi turned to engage Tonetero vines curled themselves over Dar's left foot, and when he moved to slash them loose new vines grasped his sword arm, immobilizing him. Vines wrapped around Neji and Shiren in great torrents, submerging them under the sea of green as Tonetero laughed in hideous glee. Just as he lost sight of the stone ninja Xi saw Dar struggling to bring his hands together, attempting to form a seal.
Goddamn you, undying monster, wasn't it enough to kill you once? Xi lunged down at the protective globe of thorns that enclosed Tonetero, slamming aside mercilessly a grass ninja who tried to stop him, using dragon's fang to blast a gaping hole in the man's shoulder. Xi brought his hands up in a familiar pattern of seals, and then brought his hands to his mouth, thumbs and pairs of fingers linked, and likewise spread. "Dragon breath no jutsu!"
The hideous blast of lightning arced from Xi's mouth as if slamming down at the earth from the heavens. Tonetero's thorns moved to block it though, and even as the lightning incinerated its way through them more and more thorns moved into the path, hundreds of sharp wooden cinders fell away, burnt to nothing, it was not enough to block the titanic force of that chakra hungry dragon jutsu, but it was enough to slow the blast long enough that Tonetero simply stepped aside and it passed by harmlessly.
"Bastard!" Xi howled, and he slammed into the standing corpse, raking kunai across his back and pushing him down to the ground. He knew it wasn't enough, but it bought at least a moment, a moment when that sea of green vines weakened.
"Kaiten!" Neji screamed the jutsu and spun free of the vines, a circular tunnel of emptiness now stood in the middle of that sea of green.
"Rose Facet Spin!" Like some viscous dicing blade the figure of Kataishi Dar slashed a great swath loose in a complex spinning pattern, and shot up into the air.
Xi saw these two free themselves and he felt his breath quicken, but then his eyes seized over to the place where Shiren was bound.
The remaining Grass ninja stood there, at least a dozen, and one held a figure wrapped in vines, the struggling form of Shiren.
"No!" Neji screamed, and moved toward her. "Shiren!"
Shiren gasped something that was lost in the shouts of the grass ninja and the hissing noise of Tonetero summoning the wall of thorns back to his body, far from defeated.
Damn, damn, damn! They have her! Xi thought, but he could do nothing. There are too many, and nothing has been settled. "Neji, Dar, escape north, now!" He shouted, and followed his command with actions.
"No!" Neji retorted. "I will get Shiren back!" He said this even as two more grass ninja, the two Neji recalled slamming to the ground only moments before, stood up and interposed themselves between him and those who were hauling Shiren away behind Tonetero's screen of thorns. She struggled, but was unable to make her arms move against those vines, and could do nothing.
"Shut up Neji!" Xi demanded, hurling shuriken to scatter the Grass ninja. He hit the ground in front of Neji. "This battle is a loss, we must go."
"No!" Neji said, his voice gone almost totally hollow. "I won't leave Shiren."
There's no time for this. Xi pulled back him right hand, and slammed it into Neji's stomach, Neji, unaware of anything beyond Shiren's receding form, took the blow and collapsed forward. "Dar, cover me." Xi ordered, and grabbed Neji and leapt over the wall of vines and nettles.
"Earth element: Pillars of Stone no jutsu!" Dar slammed the tip of his sword into the ground, and great spikes of stone sprang up in a wall before him, blocking the grass ninja from view. The spikes were not particularly strong or tall, but they were enough. Dar leapt after Xi quickly.
Moments later the three ninja were passing hurriedly through the scrublands, traveling north in a zigzag pattern to avoid pursuit. Xi put Neji down, and the young dragon ninja almost mindlessly propelled himself forward, but his attention was elsewhere.
Dar came up on the side of Xi. "My apologies for following you." He said quickly.
"That's not important right now." Xi remarked. "Do you know a sheltered area near here?"
"There is a boulder field on a hill to the north, I was tracking you from there earlier." Dar answered.
"Then we will head there, discussion can wait." Xi said simply, but his face was grim. He looked over at Neji to his right. This is bad, too many things have happened today, and your failure Neji, is perhaps the most important of them. It seems this will be the moment of truth. Xi steeled himself then, forcing himself to harden his gaze and remember the eight years alone and his true mission. The memory of Mehize Kizen, the Akatsuki who served the one he sought, was more than enough. I will not be forgiven for this, Neji, but dragons are unforgiving.