Disclaimer – See chapter 1.
A/N – I've reached the end of all the chapters I've already had written, and with uni and procrastination holding sway over my life at the moment, I wouldn't hold your breath for a hurried update.
Chapter 5
The day had not been a good one for the ninjas from the Leaf village.
And they'd only been awake for a couple of hours.
"This is bullshit," mutters Naruto under his breath as he desperately parries an incoming kunai with his own.
Sasuke's sharingan marks wheel about in his eyes, reading their enemies movements and trying to come up with a way to defeat him.
How did we let ourselves get discovered this quickly? He pulls a kunai out of his ninja bag and flicks in nimbly towards their attacker. The ninja dodges with ease and resumes his attack on Naruto.
I know!
"Naruto! Give us a bit of cover!"
"I'm on it! Kage bunshin no jutsu!"
Naruto quickly performs the seal and splits into 5 identical copies of himself. They crowd around the enemy, kicking up dust and constantly hurling abuse towards him, providing the perfect distraction for Sasuke.
Sasuke stealthily makes his way to the back of the melee while Sakura and Hinata hide themselves in the trees.
Suddenly, Sasuke strikes. He leaps from his hiding place and launches himself towards the enemy ninja, with a kunai in each hand. The distance between the enemy shinobi and Sasuke closes in a heartbeat.
A wet tearing sound fills the air.
Sasuke's heavy body has fallen limp over the shinobi's quickly reversed kunai. The ninja momentarily turns around to check the dead boy. With a reasonably loud pop and a bit of smoke, the body turns into Naruto.
From within the group of Narutos, Sasuke's voice is heard.
"Katon! Goukakyuu no jutsu!"
A blazing inferno engulfs the ninja. Four Naruto's disappear in a puff of smoke, including the one impaled on the kunai.
Several seconds later, the only thing left on the torched earth are some ashes. Sasuke signals that the coast is clear and the girls drop out of trees.
"This is the third time today," complains Sakura. "Are we wearing bells or something?"
"Someone good is obviously tracking us," says Hinata calmly. "But I don't understand why they keep sending genins to intercept us"
"That person probably wants to figure out how we fight before taking us on himself. But this is getting us nowhere," replies Sasuke, and he takes to the trees, closely followed by Naruto, Sakura and finally Hinata.
Once in the relative safety of the trees, Naruto begins to talk.
"So, how about if Sasuke and I just fight all the genins we come across today? If we use the same tactics over and over again, we can just do something different when we fight our tracker."
"It's a good idea in theory," begins Sasuke "and we'll run with it for a while."
The group continue on through the forest canopy slowly, beating off various attacks with ease. Eventually, Sasuke's and Naruto's chakra use begin to take their toll, and sometime around dusk, Sakura and Hinata demand to stop for a break to let the boys catch their breath.
Sasuke shakes his head widly.
"No!" he hisses. "If we show weakness, our tracker friend is going to show his ugly face and that's not a good idea now."
"You're quite right," booms a voice from somewhere in the trees. Naruto and Sasuke jerk their heads around, desperately trying to locate the owner of the voice.
A missing-nin dressed in a black robe drops from the trees behind the group, causing Sakura to emit a muffled scream and stumble a few steps towards Sasuke. Hinata turns to face their new opponent, but in a flash Naruto appears in front of her.
She can see sweat dripping off the back of his neck, and his breathing is hard and loud. To her, he looks completely exhausted and all the dark haired girl wants to do is take him and comfort him. Unfortunately, now is not the time for that.
"Naruto-kun…" she whispers, trying to project as much concern into her voice as she can. Naruto picks it up straight away.
"Don't worry Hinata, Sasuke and I will have this guy down in no time."
Hinata's eyes shoot a quick glance of concern at the back of her crush's head. Naruto glances across to Sasuke who has apparently been involved in the same kind of conversation that he has been in. He looks back at their new enemy and grins.
"Let's roll! Sasuke!"
Sasuke grins in reply. The two boys leap forward to begin the attack and the two girls leap straight up into the cover of the trees.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"
Once again, Naruto utilizes his shadow clones to help give him and Sasuke the advantage. However, instead of creating a distraction, the five clones spread out around the missing nin, each manning the point of a star.
"Interesting. It seems you aren't as dumb as you look."
"I'll give you dumb," Naruto roars as his clones all charge at once. One pulls it's fist back and lashes out hard – only to be blocked and flipped away. This in turn throws the real Naruto off the clones back and sends him spinning.
The remaining three clones drop to the ground and begin to raise their feet towards the midriff of the black ninja. Before the ninja can react, they connect, sending him soaring through the air.
Sasuke immediately launches himself after the ninja and begins running through the sequence of his lion combo technique. The first kick is blocked, the follow up kick is caught and the elbow drive is as well. The ninja uses his leverage to hurl Sasuke towards the ground. Fortunately for the young Uchiha genius, Naruto manages to make a diving catch, so no major damage is incurred.
"I was expecting more from you two. It's such a pity you had to waste your chakra fighting my underlings. Lord Shinbo will be most disappointed in the quality of the ninja's that Leaf sent to kill him."
Naruto has now planted Sasuke back on his feet, but both are panting heavily and are showing signs of major exertion.
"Pfft. Don't… count on us just… keeling over… now," stammers Naruto between pants.
"Oh please," mutters the missing-nin contemptuously. Within the space of a heartbeat, he has covered the distance between him and Naruto. The ninja in black quickly drives his fist deep into Naruto's stomach before the blonde chuunin can react. Net result, one unconscious Naruto.
Sasuke watches on with a grimace. In the trees, both Hinata and Sakura raise their hands to their mouths and gasp silently.
Before the missing-nin has time to gloat, Sasuke snaps out his trance and springs backwards, hurling a veritable barrage of bladed weapons towards their aggressor.
The projectiles gracefully home in towards their intended target, who just as gracefully dodges… And is taken by surprise as a hidden flight of shuriken emerge in the ninja's blind spot. Sasuke grins as the ninja is forced to roughly hurl himself to the side. The dodge isn't fully effective though. Two shuriken trace a blood path across his leg.
"Whoops, did I forget to tell you about that?" Sasuke smirks.
The ninja grimaces as he pulls himself up. "Very clever. However, now it's my turn."
The ninja's hands glide through a complex set of seals. In order to prevent the release of his chakra and hence the effects of the forthcoming jutsu, Sasuke hurls a kunai towards the mystery ninja. This has little effect, for as soon as the kunai has left his hand, the ninja ceases hand movement.
"Earth hammer no jutsu!"
A large two by two metre section of earth in front of Sasuke pulls itself free from the ground and flips over, catching the hurled kunai and almost Sasuke as well. Fortunately, the young Uchiha prodigy has used a chakra enhanced leap to propel himself backwards and out of danger.
I'm running dangerously low on chakra… This is going to be an all or nothing effort
The infamous sharingan swirls appear in Sasuke's eyes and he launches himself high into the air to begin his final assault. With lightning speed the young chuunin removes the last two of his kunai's and wields one in each hand, then crashes down onto their assailant with overwhelming force.
A cloud of dust covers both Sasuke and the mysterious ninja as they fall to the ground in a tangle. As the dust clears, both girls begin to observe a desperate taijitsu struggle and hear the sound of blade on blade as Sasuke and his opponent dance around each other, both looking for any openings in the other's defence.
The whirlwind of kunai strikes continues unabated for a minute or two, however Sasuke's lack of chakra appears to be taking its toll. The sweat on Sasuke begins to pour off by the bucket load and his breathing seems to become almost as much of a struggle as the fight itself. His opponent, sensing the weakness, presses the attack and lunges straight forward at Sasuke with his two kunai's extended out in front of him. Sasuke's eyes widen.
This is it! My opportunity!
Using the speed and foresight that his Sharingan technique enables him, Sasuke leans over backwards and as the strike passes over his stomach, Sasuke brings one foot up hard and plants it in his opponent's chest. This has the effect of throwing the ninja off balance and he begins to fall on top of Sasuke. The Uchiha prodigy simply falls back on the ground and uses their combined momentum to throw the missing-nin over him.
Sasuke quickly flips to his feet and leaps towards the downed ninja, kunai's at the ready. As he begins to swipe at the prone ninja, it suddenly kicks into motion and in an action to fast for any normal eye to follow, completely turns the tables by somehow sending Sasuke skidding into some undergrowth, face down.
"Now!" hisses Sakura, from somewhere in the canopy.
It appears that Sakura was waiting for a moment like this. In the blink of an eye, several shurikens are launched from the pink genin's hands, humming through the air on the way to their intended target.
Three wet slapping sounds and a pitiful sigh are the only sounds that break the sudden silence. The mysterious ninja has been pinned to the ground by three shuriken. One through the heart, one through the throat and one between the eyes.
Sasuke pulls himself up, battered, bruised and tired, just in time to see Hinata and Sakura alight gently on the ground next to him.
"Sasuke-kun! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," grunts Sasuke. "What about the loser?"
Hinata turns to look at Naruto's prone form. Her eyes widen in concern and she leaves Sakura's side to check over Naruto. She gulps as she rolls the normally hyperactive shinobi onto his back and blushes as she lifts his shirt up so she can examine the wounded area.
Sasuke begins to unsteadily walk towards Naruto, and Sakura quickly rushes to him, throwing a hand under his shoulder in an attempt to steady him. Sasuke tries to pull away, but Sakura doggedly keeps moving next to him. Sasuke sighs.
"Thank you, Sakura," he mutters under his breath. "For saving my life as well."
Sakura merely looks at her feet.
They quickly reach Hinata and Naruto, where Hinata is looking rather worried, and with good reason too. A large, dark purple splotch is covering the stomach of the blonde chuunin and Hinata has her byakugan engaged.
"What's wrong with the loser?" Sasuke spits as they approach.
Hinata raises her head from her analysis of Naruto's inner systems. "Umm… He's bruised badly, and he is suffering from mild internal bleeding. I don't think he's going anywhere for a while."
Hinata disengages her byakugan and looks at Sasuke.
"A-Are you alright Sasuke? Do you want me look at your injuries?"
Sasuke backs off a step or two and protectively brings an arm in front of his body. "No thanks, I just need rest," he replies, panting. "We may as well stop here for a while. We're only an hour away from the castle and our operation needs to take place after midnight. We'll stop and rest here to allow time for Naruto to recover and then get moving just after midnight."
Hinata carefully picks up the unconscious Naruto and follows Sakura and Sasuke into the forest canopy. They find a fairly thick branch within a couple of minutes and Hinata wordlessly lays Naruto down in a hollow. Sasuke picks a spot for himself and collapses down in a heap. Sakura sighs and turns to Hinata.
"We should organize watches."
Hinata nods in agreement. "I'll go first, I still have to try and sort out this internal bleeding."
Sakura nods and lays down not too far away, closing her eyes.
Although in truth, I'm not sure what I can do for him.
Hinata ends up quietly and quickly making a paste of some sort, and attempts to feed it to the unconscious boy. By reflex, Naruto manages to swallow a small quantity and Hinata sighs with helplessness. For all the good it will do, she applies a bandage to the bruised area and leaves they boy alone, although she never strays more than a step or two away from him during her watch.
Several hours later, Sakura's sleep is disturbed as the dedicated medical ninja of the team gently shakes her awake. Sakura efficiently brings herself to her feet and scans the area quickly before turning to face Hinata.
"My turn?" The young pink haired genin whispers.
Hinata nods and Sakura flashes her a thumbs up. Glad to be relieved and still somewhat tired, the Hyuuga shinobi stumbles towards a nook in the branch and lies down quietly, offering barely a sigh to the night as she drifts into slumber.
"Oi, Hinata, wake up."
Hinata mumbles in her sleep and twitches slightly. Unperturbed by the lack of a response, her waker continues in his efforts, now grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking gently as well.
"Hinataaaa… It's time to go now," a boyish whisper announces.
Hinata slowly opens her eyes and focuses on the young chuunin in front of her. It takes less than a second for recognition to kick in, as even though the figure is mostly a fuzz of colour only person she knows would be wearing orange. Hinata can feel a warm rush of blood rise to her face which intensifies when she realizes the object of her desire is gently holding onto her shoulders.
"Na-Naruto-kun? Are you alright?"
Hinata brings herself to a sitting position while Naruto replies.
"Eh? What? Why wouldn't I be?" The quizzical expression on the boy's face gives Hinata the opinion that he doesn't know exactly how critical his situation is.
"Umm, Naruto-kun, do you mind if I look at your wound please?"
The blonde ninja raises an eyebrow. "Oh, this?" Naruto raises his shirt over his belly, allowing Hinata to look at the bandage. She gingerly begins to lift up the bandage, trying not to irritate the bruise… and finds that there is no bruising anymore. Hinata begins to blush in embarrassment.
"Umm… I could have sworn you had a bruise there… But it seems to have been gone now. And you were also bleeding internally…"
Naruto looks into Hinata's face, and despite the time being slightly past midnight he can immediately pick the mixture of concern and bewilderment on her face. He begins to chuckle quietly, and act which causes Hinata to blush more and lower her face to cover it.
"I am the great ninja Naruto, after all. It's only to be expected that I can recover from hits like that one in no time at all."
He suddenly brings his face close to Hinata's ear and whispers in it… "But check me for internal bleeding now anyway, I don't want to drop dead while we're on the move."
The team begins their final trek through the woods, and under the cover of darkness they make it to the fortress without running into any hindrances. Eventually Sasuke calls the group to a stop about a hundred metres away, where the thick forest gives way to an open plain.
"Any ideas for covering this open ground?" The Uchiha chuunin enquires of his group.
"Of course," replies Sakura with a grin. She withdraws two kunais as well as two explosive tags. She swiftly attaches the tags to the kunais and with a chakra enhanced arm, hurls them far away. Everyone watches as the kunais arc into the forest several hundred metres around from them and Sakura grins when she sees them disappear from view.
"When I set those off, we make a quick dash for the moat. Sound good?"
Sasuke nods and Sakura pulls another item from her pouch. Upon close inspection by Sasuke, it appears to be a flashbomb of some sort.
It figures. I bet she's had this part planned all along. At least one of us can think that far ahead.
Sakura launches the flashbomb along the same path as the two kunais, and the entire group readies themselves for their flight to the moat. The flashbomb reaches the top of its arc and the four children tense. It seems to take an eternity for the object to drop…
It enters the undergrowth with an almost silent rustle…
… And collides with one of the previously thrown kunai. Almost instantaneously, the flashbomb and the explosive tag ignite, setting off the second tag. The immediate area becomes a place of light and chaos, drawing every eye in the castle for a precious few seconds. Already the leaf ninjas are making their way quickly and efficiently towards the castle, with only one mind not one hundred percent devoted to the task of making it to the moat unseen.
What happened to Naruto-kun's injuries? It's like they were never there at all…