Well, hello again! I apologize for not updating over the holiday weekend (or the weak after that #blush#), but I was busy chasing women and whatnot . I got several reviews, and none from my usuals! Not that this is a good thing, as I wubb my usual readers, but it's real nice to inflate my horde of evil minions (bwarharhar!). And don't think I wasn't hooting when FFN went down right after I posted, leaving my story in the top 3 for 2 days. I was totally punching the air :P
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Tracing the Clouds.
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Chapter 15: The Wind
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Fortune favors the bold.
-Virgil, The Aenid.
The Wayward Sage. Katana held vertical, the blunt of the long, gleaming instrument of death facing the enemy, the delicate curve leaving his left eye in shadow. Wakizashi held in a similar stance, blade turned to the floor, it's shorter bend facing the opposite direction. It was a fighting style long gone from this world, one he'd inherited from a man who knew no age, and held no other man master. As the Chakra built slowly within his core, he uttered the time-honored words that the style embodied so perfectly.
"I am a Tree.
Bending in the wind,
Yet never breaking.
The mountains Crumble
Beneath my roots.
And in the rain
I revel."
Kakashi looked over, his Sharingan tracing the form of this foreign technique, mind calculating the possibilities. The boy's mumbling told him the style was centered around speed and agility, focusing more on the dextral qualities of a Shinobi, rather than brute strength. He gave a devious smile beneath his mask. Let's see what it's capable of.
As if practiced a million times, the boy reached out, cutting a neat gash in the first of the oncoming ninja's torso, the man keeling over in pain as a short, glinting blade met his spine. Kakashi winced. Did the young man really take life so easily? Clearly there were some things that had been damaged in his time under the Sound that would take years to heal, if possible at all. Kakashi was shaken from his thoughts as more Grass shinobi met him, attempting to take small pieces of him home for their families. The silver-haired Jounin sighed, resigning to fight the men before him, but his eyes remained on his student.
Naruto bit his thumb, reveling in the taste of his own blood. Any blood, at the moment, was good blood. He felt the Kyuubi stir within him, driving his emotions, pushing him to kill. He shook those dark thoughts away, slamming his hand to the ground. Suddenly he was atop Gama Banjin. "Well, Ello again kiddo, what we got 'ere?" The giant toad suddenly filled their half of the room, Sakura groaning in protest as the creature's bumpy exterior pressed her against a far wall. Offering a hand, Naruto pulled her atop the chuckling beast, who sat surveying the chaos, shuriken and the like bouncing uselessly off his iron hide.
"So, what am I after?" A big smile started to form on the amphibion's lips as he looked about, obviously aching for a fight as the roof of the dimly-lit entrance lobby of the building threatened to crush the two chuunin perched atop his head. "Hey, watch it! Alright, here's the deal. You see all these ninja?"
"Yeah."
"See the ones without Leaf insignia?"
"Yeah."
"Squish 'em."
Iro was shaken momentarily from his battle fervor as a giant webbed hand came crashing down on several assailing Shinobi to his left. He stared wide-eyed as the foot receded from whence it came, trailing a series of colorful cries from the ninja in question as it went. He was forced to be attentive once again as a rather large fist met his left solar plexus, wrenching his neck into a rather unpleasant angle. Taking a moment to re-adjust his brain, he glared death at the owner of said fist, and proceeded to filet him, darkshimmering steel a flashing blur in the crowd of ninja.
Kakashi watched as the Karushinobi arced gracefully through the air, his two weapons of choice moving in ahaze as he sailed over the crowd of ninja, which was rapidly waning. He grinned, watching his students do their work as he absent-mindedly dismantled the defenses of some faceless grass chuunin, ripping the mask from the man's face and wailing on him with it. Sakura had initialized her current project Genjustu, that she liked to call Unrest no Justu. Naruto had dubbed the technique the "drunken bar-fight no jutsu", as it created within the target (or targets, as it could be focused to center on an area) an intense feeling of vertigo, rendering nearly all motor skills essentially useless. She had so far managed to mold it enough to avoid hurting her own team, and was rather pleased as she observed several of the lesser Grass nin stumble and fall, struggling as if they suddenly had no legs to speak of.
Iro was stunned. He'd never had to face a Jounin in actual combat before, and he realized now his great error in underestimating the meaning the rank held. Now he knew, now he understood why it was these men and women were the feared and revered of every village. His power was incredible as he smashed the younger ninja's onslaught away to nothing, catching the boy's oncoming blade in an expert hand stroke. He grinned darkly at the young ninja, driving a thousand-pound fist into the boy's solar plexus, sending him to ricochet off the adjacent wall.
Iro stood shakily, barely dodging a screaming Grass Chuunin as he hurtled past, apparently the subject to one of Gama Banjin's more aggressive punts. The jounin stood smiling, the bandages that hid the lower half of his face doing nothing to hide his smug demeanor as his beady eyes wandered over the disheveled Leaf Nin. He grinned even wider as the boy fell back into his odd battle-stance, blades vertical, body relaxed.
"You might as well give it up, boy. You won't pass."
Iro simply gave him a small, lopsided grin.
"Catch it this time, smartass."
The boy's hands flashed through an unusually long list of hand seals. Once completed, he unsheathed his wakizashi, holding it low at his beltline, hand gripping the reversed hilt and the blade danced in the direction from whence he had come. Katana was arched over his head in a fashion that an on-looking Kakashi recognized immediately. When on earth had he learned that technique?! The boy crouched, his blades seeming to shimmer and blur as he readied his charge. "Leaf Special Technique: Mikazuki No Mai!!" Kakashi's eyes widened. "The dance of the Crescent Moon." But who taught him that?
The Grass Jounin seemed to lose some of his bravado. Two blades he had been prepared for. The thousands that now flew with the boy as he charged were another matter. He seemed to resolve to a decision as the boy drew dangerously near, and blurred through several hand seals as he set his legs at either side, preparing to quell this blow as well. "Chite No Justu!" and in a flash of glinting steel a thousand blades met a thousand hands.
A malevolent smirk appeared beneath the bandages.
"I caught it."
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Again. Sooooo sorry for not updating, my mind is just extremely muddled at the moment for various reasons. Hopefully ill get the next chapter out much quicker.