A/N: Hmm. I guess stories that focus on OC's really aren't that popular. Ah well. I have a favor to ask of the people who DO read my story. If you like it, tell your friends! Let them know it isn't just some retarded drivel that focuses on nothing but my character! Grummur has low self-esteem kids, feed him reviews to keep him happy! :D
At any rate, I'm not exactly sure on the direction of the next few chapters, as the plot is only working it's way through my brain right now, but I promise to make it interesting.
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Tracing the Clouds
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Chapter 13: Enter the Rift
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Iro awoke to the sound of hushed voices. His eyes widened as his mind came to grips with what was going on.
"Sheez, what idiots, who'd make camp with no watch eh? Amateurs."
From his place in the trees, Iro cursed. Kakashi had been on watch, hadn't he? "Oh shit." The agitated leaf nin clamped a hand over his mouth as the muffled words escaped.
One of the grey-clad ninja looked about. "What was that?"
"I didn't hear anything."
Iro kicked himself mentally, running through a familiar set of seals. The gauze on his hands loosened, revealing a set of scarred digits, and palms carved with strange seals that seemed to glow dimly with an otherworldly power. He reached out, arms slowly disappearing into thin air. In a quick, practiced leap, he was gone. He had been on watch! How could he have forgotten? This whole thing was his fault, and he felt like screaming. He suppressed that urge however, even if he was in the rift, sounds and faint shadows still sometimes carried over, and he'd rather not alert the group of Grass ninja to his presence.
The faint specters that were the Grass jounin hovered over the prone forms of Iro's team, and he barely pushed the grin away as faint echoes of Naruto's screams of indignation reached his ears. Now was no time to laugh. He noted something important as the enemy ninja hoisted his bound and gagged team onto their shoulders. Where was Kakashi? They hadn't gotten him apparently, and were none the wiser for it. Suddenly the gennin spotted a patch of grey amidst the dull greens and browns, and made to move for it, being quite and extremely slow, noting the shadow he left was painfully obvious in the morning light.
Kakashi's eyebrow raised as a scarred hand appeared from nowhere in front of him, grabbing him by the collar. As he was yanked bodily through the dimensional tear into a grey, smog-filled world that felt well below freezing, it inched it's way even further up his forehead, which was now creased in what the untrained eye might take for concern. Shifting uneasily, he eyed the grey, semi-transparent image of his student that stood next to him. Looking down at himself, he noted a similar effect, and shrugged. Good enough.
"You fell asleep"
"Yeah, I did, and now they have the others…I'm sorry."
Kakashi rested a hand on the boy's shoulder, or tried to anyway, as the hand went straight through him.
"Don't bother," the disgruntled young man informed him, "nothing in this plane has any physical manifestation, at this moment you and I are both pure bodies of Chakra, and nothing more. I appreciate the gesture, though"
Kakashi nodded sagely, rubbing the back of his neck. He didn't really take a shine to the idea of being one giant justu. But then again, he considered, he didn't take a shine to being hog-tied and carried away either. He shrugged again. Whatever. "Yeah, well, um, anyway. Don't apologize, fix it. You got them in to this mess, now how do you plan to get them out?" Iro gave him a half-hearted grin. "I have a plan, but I'll need your help."
The four Hidden Grass Jounin made their way slowly back to the gates of their home village, stopping every once in a while to "sedate" their noisy blonde prisoner (sedation usually incorporated a rather large stick). The Jounin that carried Sakura was quite pleased with herself, having picked such a quiet prisoner. None, save the pink-haired kunoichi in question, noted the two shadows that trailed silently in their wake. Sakura's eyes were glued to the ground, however, as she followed the inky patches along the rocky ground behind them.
"This actually worked out rather nicely," Kakashi mused, observing the looming city gates before them with an assessing eye. "They led us right to the village, which would have taken us days to find otherwise, and I got to watch Naruto get clubbed with a big stick! Doesn't get much better." His brown-haired companion rolled his eyes. "So what's the plan, Kakashi-sensei?" Kakashi's eyebrow shot up again. "You're asking me? I thought I told you, this is your fault, you're gonna fix it." Iro spluttered. Tactics were not his forte. He was so much better at just slicing things. Sighing, he collected his thoughts. Slicing wasn't going to help here. This was going to require stealth, speed, and precision. He had to rescue his teammates, and he still had the mission to worry about. After some careful consideration, he came up with a working plan.
"Okay, this is what we're gonna do." The Leaf nin broke into a series of seals, finishing with the utterance "Wareme Shakou no jutsu" A tall, shrouded figure shimmered into view next to Kakashi, it's breath a shuddering rasp as it knelt before his gennin companion. A silver eyebrow arched it's way out of visibility under Kakashi's Hitai-ita. Kakash-sensei, this is Kashyk, Kashyk, Kakashi-sensei. The grim creature shifted it's head slowly, twin yellow orbs glowing from deep within the hollow under it's tattered black hood. "It iss an honor, Copy-ninja." Came the hiss from a mouth that didn't appear to exist. "Kashyk is a Shade, one of the creatures that reside within this place. He guards the rift, assuring that none who do not belong enter without permission. Long ago my clan made a blood pact with Kashyk and his kind, and we've gotten along rather nicely since then." Iro gave his jounin sensei a wry grin as he watched the older man shift uneasily under the otherwordly creature's gaze. "Since you're leaving the planning up to me, this is what we're going to do. Find out where our target is, I'm going to go save the other two stooges."
"Are you incurring that I, the great Copy-ninja Kakashi, am a Stooge?" But before he could get the sentence out, the boy was gone, leaving the rather unnerved Jounin alone with the ungodly apparition the other had summoned. After a few seconds, Kakashi brought forth the will to speak. "So uh, what're you doing here?" The creature's hiss of a voice caused Kakashi to jump when it came. "Iro-ssan hass assked me to sstay and open the rift when you find it appropriate to leave. While it does not penalisse you, it taxxess Iro-ssan greatly to remain in this plane. He had to leave." Kakashi nodded sagely once more. "I see…" He didn't.
"Man, how lame, that bastard! When I g—OWW!"
"Oh be quiet and hold still, will you? These cuts need to be cleaned, or they'll get infected."
Naruto winced as the speaker applied the stinging salve to the back of his head, which was covered with huge lumps, some of which were bleeding.
"Notice how my head is curiously bump-free? Maybe next time you'll learn to shut the hell up when they tell you to."
The Blonde chuunin grimaced. "I never give up, that's my ninja way."
Sakura sighed, shaking her head slowly as a tiny smile played across her lips. "You're hopeless."
Without warning the barred door of their dingy cell fell inward, landing with a distressful 'whump' squarely on Naruto's freshly-bandaged head. "SON OF A MOTHER F—" A hand clamped over his wide-stretched mouth, the owner of which hissing harshly into his ear. "Keep it down, damnit! You wanna wake the whole damn garrison?" Naruto whipped around on his assailant, piercing him with a molten hot glare. "YOU SHITHEAD, YOU FELL ASLEEP AND LEFT US TO ROT!!" Iro sighed. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that. But I really do need you to be quiet, and we need to get going now. Kakashi has given me a place to meet, and the sooner we get there the better."
The three tip-toed their way past the unconscious guards, and without a second glance, the three stole silently away, keeping to the shadows as they made their way to their newly appointed rendezvous.
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There we go! Let's see how this ends up, shall we? :)
Reviews ftw!