A/N – Thanks Xoni for the constructive review. Regarding the warlord and his ninja, my reasoning was that Tsuande kind of figured that since a high level ninja was killed, they had destroyed his ninja reserve, as I'm going to assume hiring jounin level missing-nins costs a bit of money. And with the dogs bit, just assume a chakra jump was made :) But now I'm trying to keep my eye out for little discrepancies like that, so thanks.
Chapter 6
As Sakura's flashbomb ignites on its intended target, she quickly hisses for everyone to get moving. The other members of her group have little need for her encouragement as they have already left their respective branches and are falling towards the ground. Sakura doesn't waste time shrugging and leaps off after them. Within microseconds, all pairs of feet have hit the ground and are making their way in a wide pattern towards the moat of the castle, covered by the confusion created by Sakura's diversion.
As the young ninjas silently dive into the moat, the sole person to notice their approach turns away from his window and back to a study desk, upon which sits a large amount of paper work. The dark figure grins. "Interesting."
"Oi, Hinata," whispers Naruto in a voice designed to carry, "where's the way into this stupid castle?"
Instead of Hinata's soft voice floating back with a response, Naruto recognizes the harsh tones of Sasuke, trying to keep quiet. "Shut up you idiot, you'll let them know we're here!"
Hinata takes her turn to reply. "Not too far, there should be some kind of removable grate around here."
"Should be?" Once again, Sasuke.
A dull thunk resonates around the young ninjas.
"Owww…" Moans Naruto, clutching at his forehead. "I think I found it."
Sakura, being the closest to Naruto at that particular point in time, moves in and spots the object that halted Naruto's progress in the completely random direction he was moving in. Sure enough, it's some kind of grate and even better for the infiltrating team, it's on a set of hinges. While Naruto is trying to silently thrash around under the pretense of clutching the bump on his head, Sakura efficiently removes a lockpick from her backpack and eliminates a hefty padlock from the picture.
The three 'uninjured' shinobis move through the opening, and Sasuke sees fit to throw a verbal barb at Naruto on the way past.
"You want us to get caught, don't you? So you can summon your stupid toad, right? Pfft."
Naruto responds quickly. "Come on, like I'd deliberately try to ruin our awesome plan." Despite his words however, Naruto finds himself conducting a thorough analysis of the water around his feet. Sasuke grunts and enters the tunnel. From in front of him, Hinata's muffled giggles echo almost soundlessly towards the two boys.
"Hyuuga, shut up!" Sasuke whispers harshly. "You'll only encourage the moron."
Hinata instinctively brings her hands to her mouth and blushes slightly. "Sorry."
Sasuke shakes his head and the four ninjas continue to wade through the tunnel. Soon two pinpoints of hazy orange light come into view and Sasuke motions the group to sit still. Garbled echoes of voices filter up the tunnel and the group spend what seems like an eternity listening to the fractured echoes before Sasuke comes to a decision.
"Sakura. Hyuuga. It seems like there are two guards up there." Hinata nods her head without thinking – she'd already taken a quick peek with her Byakugan technique. "Get up there underwater and take them out any way you can. Once that's done, extinguish one torch so Naruto and I know when to follow."
Sakura nods and silently sinks below the surface of the water. Seconds later Hinata follows and the pair glide off underwater like a well trained pair of synchronized swimmers. Naruto follows their progress until he can no longer distinguish the dark blobs that mark their position underwater.
"So why them instead of us Sasuke?"
"Use your head, idiot. We still need to recover our chakra and they can take care of two goons as well as we could anyway."
Naruto shrugs, well aware of the need not to lose his cool and become overly loud. Instead he turns his attention back up the tunnel and leans against the wall.
Meanwhile, Sakura and Hinata have closed the gap nicely underwater. Hinata glances sideways at Sakura, who is finishing off a seal. With a weird *glub* sound, Sakura finishes off the seal and grins sideways at Hinata. On the water's surface, their shadows disappear. Hinata engages her byakugan underwater and easily spots the location of the two guards on the landing. She points in their general direction and Sakura nods. They glide quietly to the edge of the water and Sakura begins a countdown with her fingers.
As soon as the last finger drops, both girls explode from the water, high into the air. The surprised guards have next to no time to react as one female ninja drops onto each of them. As Sakura drops onto her guard, she swings her foot around in a violent arc that ends in the young man's neck. A sort of crackling sound emanates from the impact area and the man is forcefully flung to one side by the force of the kick. He drops quickly. Hinata, on the other hand, comes down head first, hands out. She grabs the other guard's shoulders and uses him as a sort of vault to flip over his head. Thanks to some gentle fist trick, he sighs and collapses before Hinata's feet hit the ground.
After a quick examination to determine approximately how long the guards will be out for, Sakura quickly extinguishes one torch. While Hinata is in the process of dragging the guards into some deep shadows, Naruto and Sasuke emerge from the water quietly and observe their location.
"Hmm…" Sasuke begins as he looks around. "This appears to be a wine cellar."
Hinata nods. "Umm… the staircase leads to the kitchen, there are probably some off duty guards there…"
Sasuke nods and begins to move quietly up the stairway, his team members following silently behind. They quickly reach the top of the stairs, where a thick wooden door momentarily blocks their progress. Sasuke points at his eyes, then Hinata, then the door. Hinata nods, and almost inaudibly runs through the seals to activate her Byakugan. The white eyed Hyuuga girl turns around and raises one finger. Naruto grins.
"Let me get him," he whispers. Sasuke nods and steps back a bit into the darkness and Sakura follows. Hinata looks torn for a second, then follows the others.
Naruto ponderously kicks the door with his foot. Inside the kitchen, the solitary goon browsing the contents of the pantry turns his head. From behind the cellar door a dulled voice can be heard.
"Hey! Anyone in there? Can you open this door so we can get this oak barrel out of here?"
The guard is instantly suspicious and his eyes narrow oh so slightly. "Why are you moving an empty cask?"
"Oh come on, you know what kind of pointless crap the men upstairs get us to do when we're on back shift."
The guard shrugs. That was a fairly legitimate answer and it's not like the cellars would be harboring any intruders. Hell, as far as he knew, it was a dead end. By now he's made it to the door and upon giving it a big yank open, finds himself staring at nothing but darkness.
"Huh?"
That's the last thing he'll get out of his mouth for quite a while however, as something has just landed heavily on his neck. Under the weight, he falls to his knees, and something that feels like pair of hands guides his forehead quickly into the floor.
Naruto unceremoniously kicks the guard for good measure, then turns him around to examine his face. Blood flows from a medium sized split in his forehead and along with flows from the nostrils and corner of his mouth, makes for a fairly impressive sight.
"Ah, he'll live."
Naruto's three teammates emerge from the shadows and the group quickly move into the kitchen, making sure to close and lock the cellar door. Hinata looks around quickly, trying to orientate herself. She quickly does and motions for the group to follow her. Naruto grins.
"Not so fast. What are we going to do if we run into any patrolling guards?"
Hinata blushes out of sheer embarrassment. It's not often she makes a simple mistake like that and she feels really bad. Hinata turns away slightly, bringing her fingers to her face and tapping them together nervously.
"Sorry…"
"Don't be. It's good that you're getting more confident, but just don't get too headstrong or you'll show me up." Naruto finishes off with a big grin.
"I don't think anyone could do that," Sakura mutters under her breath. Inwardly, Sasuke agrees.
Naruto-kun… noticed that I'm becoming more confident? I must be changing myself… and it feels good too
Hinata just nods and mumbles a quick word of thanks to Naruto. Sakura, with kunai in hand and eyes on the door, makes a fairly sensible suggestion.
"Let's just move carefully through the castle and I'll use some genjutsu to make us blend in with the background from a distance. That should give us enough time to hide when we spot someone."
Sasuke nods. "Good idea, lets go."
Sakura moves her hands through a four seal set, and the upon completion the ninja's begin to notice a slight tingly sensation all over their skin. Naruto looks up at Sasuke and notices the edges of his clothing becoming slightly blurry. He can still quite easily see his companion though, and this bothers him quite a lot.
"Hey hey, I thought this was going to make us invisible or something!"
"That's too difficult for me to use while we're on the move. Like I said it'll make us harder to spot from a distance, by blurring our outlines into the background. Also, as we move we've got to stick together as the area of effect is centered around me."
Sasuke once again indicates his approval with a mere nod of the head. While Naruto is poking around for a few snacks in the giant pantries, Sasuke comes up with the team order.
"Hyuuga, you lead. You know the way and can check around corners with your eyes. Naruto, you go second so if we get caught from either direction you can respond with shadow clones. Sakura, you go third to be towards the centre of the group and I'll cover us."
And so the ninjas move through the main kitchen door in the order described by Sasuke, with Naruto's pockets bulging pockets full of all sorts of edible odds and ends. The group stealthily make their way through the castle, trying to avoid guards where they can, and thanks to Hinata's byakugan manage to work their way around the guards until they reach a spiral staircase that leads up a parapet to the second level of the castle.
Halfway up the staircase, Hinata quickly activates her byakugan for a quick peek at the situation at the top of the staircase and is very much dismayed to spot two guards making their way down the narrow staircase.
"Guards!" The young Hyuuga girl whispers in a panicked voice back towards the group. Naruto quickly responds by bringing his hands together in front of his nose.
"Henge!"
Naruto suddenly disappears and a window appears on the wall, including a nice backdrop of the night sky. Sakura quickly catches on and within the blink of an eye has disappeared, and an unobtrusive windowsill appears under the window. Sasuke transforms himself into a pair of black curtains, which leaves Hinata desperately out of ideas and the guards about to round the curve in the stairs. Desperately she brings her arms together and the panic disappears from her eyes a split second before she disappears in a puff of smoke. A lovely pot plant appears on the sill, rounding out the window nicely.
The guards round the corner. Just as they reach the window, one of the guards tenses and finally appears to notice the ninjas in disguise.
"Hey, this window wasn't here last time," he mentions to his comrade. Within his wooden form, Naruto prepares to pounce…
"It's about time they got around to putting this thing in. The other stairs have had their windows for at least a week now." The guard finishes off. Behind the Sasuke-curtains, a large sweatdrop appears on a pane.
"Yeah," responds the other guard as he leans on the window sill and stares out at the 'night sky'. Blissfully unaware that it's all a carefully constructed illusion, he comments "It's beautiful."
Meanwhile, Sakura is having second thoughts about her transformation choice.
Ewww! Get off me, get off me, get off me! You wear waaay to much cologne! It stinks!
The first guard places his hand on his comrade's shoulder. "It's not as beautiful as you though," he says, with no hint of sarcasm in his voice.
The other guard responds playfully. "Hey you! No funny stuff until shift change. Can't you wait twenty minutes?"
One thought runs simultaneously through four Leaf minds at that exact point in time.
GROSS!!
The guards leave, but just before they round the corner one takes the opportunity to slap the other guy on the butt. After Hinata is sure they're out of range, she releases the Henge. Seconds later, the others follow suit. Sakura desperately starts scrubbing at her forearm, her inner self having gotten the better of her for a short while.
"Gah! I swear some of that cologne wore off on me! It stinks!"
Sakura stops for a second and sniffs her arm suspiciously, then quickly resumes the scrubbing.
Meanwhile, Naruto is clutching at his head, in a vain attempt to permanently remove the last few minutes from his memory. He's stuck in his own little world, dancing around and muttering under his breath about basic background checks for guards. Even Sasuke looks slightly woozy. Hinata merely looks a little confused over Naruto's overreaction to events.
Sasuke quickly recovers. "That guard mentioned shift change in twenty minutes. It might be an idea to jump the guards who are going to change at the main chambers. Then we can pose as them and kill the guy while he's sleeping."
Hinata nods. "T-That's probably a good idea, Sasuke-san. We're only five minutes away from the chambers," Hinata offers quietly.
Naruto stops mumbling and a broad grin stretches across his features.
"Well then, lets go!" Naruto says, with a voice bordering on shouting.
"Shut up moron."
The group quickly climb the rest of the staircase, and Hinata quietly guides them without incident to a large gaudy doorway. The young Hyuuga activates her byakugan eyes and stares through the door for a few seconds.
"The place is through the large chamber in here. There are three guards," she whispers. Sasuke nods.
"We'll just hide here and wait for the replacement guards to arrive. They must be taken down quietly. And I mean it Naruto."
"Yeah yeah, whatever."
A quick scan of the surroundings reveals very few places to hide. The area is well illuminated and there are no convenient smaller side hallways to launch a surprise attack. Once these facts have been established, Sakura offers a solution.
"How about we crouch in front of the door, and I'll use a genjutsu to make us appear invisible? Then when the guards get close we can knock them out."
Sasuke nods, and motions them to the door, where all four huddle up as close as possible. Sakura quickly explains that she can only hold the genjutsu for a minute at the most when she has to cover the area the four leaf nins occupy, and that any movement from inside will automatically dispel it. Hinata agrees to use her byakugan to spot the guards before they arrive, thus the almighty 'beat up a bunch of stupid guards' plan was put into effect, and the wait began.
Not too much later, Hinata quietly raised her hand. Sakura immediately began a chain of seals and finished off by releasing some chakra. A trio of nondescript guards appear from a connecting passageway to the left and begin marching towards the door. Apparently the genjutsu that Sakura is maintaining works, as none of the guards raise any sort of alarm. When they reach arm distance, Naruto leaps forward breaking the genjutsu.
The guards are obviously startled as four children appear out of seemingly thin air. They have no time to express their surprise however, as three of the children have already clamped their mouths shut. In their last moments of sheer panic before the uncomfortable darkness of unconsciousness overtakes them, they observe a purple haired girl moving with great alacrity moving through their ranks, laying a hand of each of them in turn.
Hinata quickly ties up the guards while the others perform transformations to assume the incapacitated guards' identities. Although the young nins plan to knock out the guards still in the antechamber, it's better to be safe than sorry so they leave Hinata to shift the unconscious guards somewhere a bit less conspicuous while the transformed Naruto throws open the door and strides in.
To be concluded…
A/N – You may notice that the writing quality dropped towards the end of that chapter, I've had it sitting here for about two weeks without an end and figured that bugger it, I just want to get it finished. Expect the final chapter in say, a month or two :p