Chapter 25: The Sound of Battle
Hinata stands next to a pile of roof tiles that has completely engulfed Naruto, who lay prone underneath. Her mind races as she knows not of Naruto's condition, and her fears only get worse as the mysterious, and deadly white shinobi stands before her with the desire to take what is ever left of Naruto away from her.
"I don't care what you think Naruto has . . . I won't let you take him!" Hinata's eyes flare up and her Byakugan activates as she takes the fighting stance of the gentle fist. "If you want to get to him, you will have to go through me."
The white shinobi laughs with amusement as Hinata stands focused and ready to fight. "Well little girl, no offense to you and your ability, but I planned to do that in the first place." The white shinobi then disappears with a quick burst of speed leaving only an after image in his stead.
Hinata turns around quickly to just barely block a kunai strike aimed at the back of her neck. She braces her kunai against her forearm as she uses all of her strength to hold back the attacking shinobi. With a forward thrust, she parries the attacker's kunai away and then leans in forward to strike with an open palm laced with chakra. The white shinobi barely dodges a direct hit to his stomach, but still feels the harsh sting of the jyuuken along his stomach muscles. Hinata follows up by throwing her kunai directly at the recovering shinobi who manages to smack the kunai away with his own, leaving him prone to a thunderous shot from Hinata's right hand, nailing him square in the chest. The white shinobi reels as he realizes he has underestimated his unsuspecting opponent.
"Chikushou! What a tremendous strike. I can barely breathe. I should have researched the jyuuken more before this mission began. Looks like I have to show a few more of my cards then I originally planned. The white shinobi begins to roll up his left sleeve as Hinata charges in for another attack.
As Hinata gets within striking distance, she can hear the faint but high pitched sound ringing throughout the area. Her vision quickly becomes blurred as even her Byakugan begins to see doubles of everything. She loses concentration for only a second, and the white shinobi capitalizes, leaping into the air and striking Hinata hard with a hard knee just under the chin, sending the Hyuuga to the ground hard.
"What's going on . . . My head is pounding . . . I can barely see anything." Hinata says out loud, not expecting an answer that the white shinobi is more then happy to give.
"Sound waves my dear. I have become Orochimaru-sama's ultimate weapon. That is all that you need to know. Because soon . . . you won't be hearing anything at all." The white shinobi lifts Hinata up from the ground and places his hand only an inch away from Hinata's stomach.
A loud booming sound similar to that of a jet engine echoes through the area as a powerful blast of wind and sound waves send Hinata hurdling through the air and into the shrubbery more than twenty meters away.
The white shinobi turns to the pile of roof tiles behind him and places his hands in the seal of the tiger. The pile suddenly begins to shake and shift as Naruto's limp frame is pushed up from underneath the tiles by a pillar of solid rock. As the white shinobi reaches over to grab Naruto off of the pillar, he is beaten to the punch by a battered and bruised Hinata, who scoops Naruto up and then leaps to one of the stone pillars and then from the pillar to the roof top.
"I won't let you harm Naruto-kun!" Hinata states with a passionate intensity in her eyes.
"You don't have a choice you little bug." The white shinobi responds as he leaps high into the air with two kunai at the ready. "And it is about time that you were squashed!"
The white shinobi flies closer and closer to the prone Hinata, determined to protect the unconscious Naruto from any further harm. "I can't let him hurt Naruto-kun . . . I can't dodge as easily if I have to protect Naruto-kun . . . I have to help the rest of the village too . . . what can I do?"
"TIME TO DIE LITTLE BUG!" The white shinobi screams as he narrows down on his kill.
Hinata closes her eyes as she tries to concentrate her chakra in the right way. "Please . . . please I have to do it . . . concentrate . . . concentrate." As the white shinobi comes within a few feet Hinata, her chakra flares up as it begins to rotate around her at high speed. "That's it!"
The white shinobi finds himself unable to get out of the way as Hinata's chakra turns into a full spherical rotation around her and Naruto. "Dammit! I can't dodge!"
"KAITEN!" Hinata screams as she raises up just high enough on the balls of her feet to begin the completion of the divine rotation. The white shinobi collides with the spinning mass of chakra and its repelled twenty feet into the air, as if he were struck by truck. The white shinobi then falls back down to earth landing through the roof top of a nearby house just in front of the Hokage building.
Hinata wastes no time and she quickly leaves the area with Naruto draped over her shoulder. "I have to find help for Naruto-kun. The triage center shouldn't be far. I will drop Naruto-kun off there, and then go out again to look for everyone else."
Meanwhile, Tsunade stands still petrified by Orochimaru's sinister plot to force her to fight her deceased boyfriend and little brother. Dan and Nawaki begin to advance toward Tsunade as Orochimaru looks on with delight. "When I used this technique against Sarutobi-sensei, I needed opponents that were strong enough to help me defeat him. In this case, I have summoned the perfect shields to defend me from your attacks."
"YOU BASTARD!" Tsunade screams as tears run down her cheeks. "There was no need for this!"
"I was serious when I told you I could bring them back. I made all of the preparations necessary to bring them back, and all you had to do was heal my arms. But you decided to betray me, to save this pathetic village. So I had their souls still prepared for summoning, and all I needed was a couple of sacrifices. Luckily my new associate was happy to provide some for me." Orochimaru leans his head and neck back as he removes the sword of Kusanagi from the bowels of his stomach, grasping the katana's handle in his left hand and pointing the tip of the blade at Tsunade. "Attack!" Orochimaru commands, sending both Nawaki and Dan forward in a fast rush toward their old associate.
Tsunade readies herself in a fighting stance, her fists clenched and ready to attack. But her mind is ravaged as the mere sight of her fallen family has done serious damage to the Hokage's mind. Nawaki leaps into the air striking at Tsunade with a spin kick that is easily blocked by Tsunade's forearm. The Hokage's natural instinct is to follow up with an attack with her free hand, but the shock of seeing her younger brother alive is too much for her, and Tsunade hesitates, allowing Dan to strike her hard across the face with a straight right hook.
Orochimaru looks on with delight, laughing maniacally as his plan seems to be working perfectly. "I knew you wouldn't be able to hit them back Tsunade."
Tsunade's anger explodes as she charges head on toward Orochimaru, her fist clenched and ready to strike. Orochimaru stands his ground with his ever-present smirk still brandished across his face. As Tsunade gets within only an arms reach, Orochimaru reaches to his side, pulling Nawaki in front of him as a shield. Tsunade stops dead in her tracks as she cannot bring herself to strike her little brother, even if he is already dead. The momentary lapse is just another opening for Dan to use to strike Tsunade yet again, sending her to the ground.
"I can't do it." Tsunade says to herself. "I can't hit them. I have waited for so long just to see them again. Now that they are here . . . I have to fight them?" Her three opponents begin to slowly advance on the distraught Hokage. "Damn you Orochimaru. I will kill you!"
The two resurrected shinobi charge in again splitting off, attacking in a V shaped pattern. The both come in on either side of Tsunade, and Nawaki strikes high with spin kick and Dan strikes at the same time with a low back heel trip. Tsunade crosses her forearms in front of her, blocking Nawaki's kick, but Dan's sweep takes her off her feet. She plants a hand on the ground, pivoting around in time to dodge another attack from Nawaki. Tsunade kicks up to her feet, and leaps into the air, twisting and turning as she dodges numerous shuriken thrown into the air by her opponents below.
"Clever Tsunade." Orochimaru says to himself. "You don't want to strike your precious family, so you wish to rely on your dodging skills which are legendary. These two may not be strong enough to catch you . . . but I am." Orochimaru then disappears in a blinding display of speed.
As Tsunade dodges a straight jab from Nawaki, she blocks a thrust kick from Dan with the front of her knee. She loses focus of her surroundings only for an instant as she blocks, and Orochimaru races by almost too fast for Tsunade to see, slashing her across the back with his sword, just before Nawaki manages to land a stab with his kunai into Tsunade's left shoulder. Tsunade grimaces briefly in pain at the two pronged attack, opening up her right side to a thundering knee thrust from Dan straight to Tsunade's stomach. Orochimaru follows up, striking Tsunade hard in the back of the head with the but end of his sword's handle, knocking Tsunade to the ground.
"You're pathetic." Orochimaru laughs as he looks at Tsunade trying to get back to her feet. "To think that you could be beaten so easily . . . it's actually quite sad."
Tsunade's only response is an angered scream as she lunges toward Orochimaru, only to have Dan and Nawaki once again stand in front of him. Tsunade channels chakra to her left, and then releases it at the right moment just before she strikes the ground in front of the three of them, opening up a crater in the earth below them. The three shinobi fall into the crater, losing their defensive formation in the confusion. Orochimaru becomes blinded by the flying dirt and dust and is unable to react as Tsunade strikes him hard in the face with a left handed punch, sending her former teammate hurdling into the air. Tsunade leaps into the air following Orochimaru's flight path. She lines up the helpless Orochimaru, and leans in with a spin kick that connects with Orochimaru's rib cage. However, it turns out to be Orochimaru's favorite substitution as his body changes into a large puddle of mud that splatters outward before falling to the ground below.
"Shit!" Tsunade says as she lands back on the ground. "I almost had him."
Tsunade's enemies stand behind her in their defensive stance yet again. "You were so close Tsunade. But you were just a little too far behind. Let's continue . . . shall we?"
Meanwhile, the fight between Keinea and Sasuke continues to wage back and forth as both shinobi combat one another slowly moving back into the village. Punches, kicks, kunai strikes and counters make up the majority of the initial stages of the skirmish, with Sasuke easily proving to be the superior.
Keinea lunges in with a swipe of his kunai to the mid section that Sasuke easily dodges, pulling his abdomen back and out of Keinea's reach. Keinea seizes the opening and lands an uppercut to Sasuke's jaw only to be kicked in the chest by Sasuke as he flips backward in an effort to recover from the uppercut. Keinea does a backward roll and reaches into his pouch to remove another kunai. As he looks up he can see a flurry of shuriken flying directly at him. With quick reflexes, Keinea manages to parry the shuriken away but does not notice Sasuke moving in behind him. The sin shinobi soon feels the hot sting of Sasuke's kunai blade across his face as the leaf missing nin slashes Keinea across the bridge of the nose, just barely missing an eye. Keinea tries to recover, bringing his own kunai up to match Sasuke's, only to have the faster shinobi sneak up behind him yet again, dealing another slash with his kunai, this time to Keinea's left knee. Keinea grimaces in pain only for moment, but the time lapse is enough for Sasuke to deliver another blow. A firm sidekick to the face of Keinea, sending him tumbling backward and into a nearby tree.
"You overestimated your own ability kid." Sasuke says in a menacing tone. "You are years behind me. Just like the rest of the trash in this village, and you had no right to try and step up to my level." Sasuke tosses his kunai once in the air, catching the blade in his hand before reading it to throw at Keinea. "But nevertheless kid, this fight is over." Sasuke side arm throws his kunai directly at Keinea's face.
Suddenly Keinea slips into the shadows completely disappearing from Sasuke's view, leaving the kunai to impact against the tree stump. As Sasuke recovers from the momentary shock of Keinea's action, he tries to focus in with his sharingan eye in a vein attempt to detect where the sin shinobi has disappeared to.
Keinea emerges from just in front of Sasuke, attacking with a random kunai slash that Sasuke avoids easily, leaping high into the air. Keinea appears above Sasuke just as suddenly as he had disappeared, leaping out from a shadow-covered tree branch and delivering a spin kick straight between Sasuke's shoulder blades, driving him hard into the ground as Keinea retreats into the safety of the shadows. As Sasuke staggers back up to his feet, Keinea quickly moves through the shadows on an intercept course. Sasuke releases a lightning fast series of hand seals as he attempts to counter Keinea's oncoming attack. Serpent, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger
KATON: GOUKAKYUU NO JUTSU! (Grand Fireball Technique)
An enormous chakra-fueled fireball explodes from Sasuke's mouth as it speeds toward Keinea's shadow trench. Sasuke pours more and more chakra into his fireball complete reducing a large portion of the area to ash before he discontinues his fire stream. As Sasuke takes a closer look to inspect the area that has been torched, Keinea emerges from a shadow behind him with a few minor burns and a stream of smoke pillowing out from his heated clothing. He emerges quickly and undetected as he attempts another strike against the unsuspecting Sasuke. With the blink of an eye, Sasuke spins around and collides kunai with Keinea, blocking his attacking and leaving Keinea open. Sasuke strikes Keinea with a forward thrust kick before Keinea even plants his feet on the ground. The kick sends Keinea further into the air, and Sasuke crouches down to the ground quickly before he follows suit.
Sasuke follows Keinea's trajectory, staying in Keinea's shadow and just out of his vision. Sasuke strikes at Keinea with a telegraphed kick that Keinea easily blocks with his forearm. Sasuke attempts to fake out Keinea by telegraphing another kick, but the seasoned sin shinobi does not fall for Sasuke's ruse. He pushes off of Sasuke's leg and spins around to face his attacker, and offering a firm left hook in mid air that Sasuke manages to catch in the palm of his hand. Sasuke uses Keinea's momentum against him and manages to pull off a mid air judo style flip over his shoulder sending Keinea to the ground. Sasuke follows through with his own momentum, somersaulting in the same manner and path that Keinea had just been sent on, and Sasuke lands a thunderous leg drop to Keinea's chest breaking two of his ribs and fracturing his sternum as well as leaving a crater in the ground underneath him.
"SHISHI RENDAN!" (Lion Combo) Sasukescreams before he quickly kicks up to his feet as he confidently moves in for the kill as Keinea is left writhing in pain on the ground.
"Well, that was a bit more impressive!" Sasuke says, as he wipes away some blood from the side of his mouth. "But now I grow tired of this warm up!" Sasuke raises his kunai in the air with the blade pointed downward as he thrusts it down toward Keinea.
Keinea quickly throws his hands together in the seal of the horse with thumbs connected and he slips into his own shadow disappearing from Sasuke's sight. Sasuke halts his stabbing motion as he quickly tries to determine where Keinea will appear next.
"This trick is getting old!" Sasuke jokes. "It's a useful one, but I will notice its weak point very soon." As Sasuke continues surveying the area, he turns his back to Keinea's solitary shadow in the middle of the forest opening. Keinea quickly emerges from the shadow as Sasuke turns his back, and makes a run for the nearby shadows cast upon the forest floor from the canopy above. Sasuke notices Keinea quickly and throws his kunai at the fleeing nin in time to clip Keinea's other knee just before Keinea falls into the shadows again.
"The shadow on the forest floor is gone . . . it must have been he that was casting the shadow." Sasuke deducts as he continues searching the area. "I see . . . he can only travel from shadow to shadow if the shadows are connected. The extent of his technique must limit him severely . . . but most opponents are likely caught off guard by his ability to seemingly disappear into thin air. That's how Shikamaru was able to dodge my attack. He must have been pulled into the shadows with this kid. All the spots that he has attacked me from have been area's that were dense in shadow . . . he must need to enter and leave the shadows through an opening large enough for him to fit in. That means all I have to do to locate the next area he will attack from . . . is to find the area with shadow covering large enough to attack from. If he was able to bring Shikamaru into his little shadow realm . . . then other objects must be able to enter it as well . . . hmpf . . . this is all too easy."
Sasuke looks slightly over his left shoulder to an area on one of the tree trunks that is covered by a larger amount of shadow. "No . . . still too small." Sasuke continues his nonchalant search until he notices a thick tree branch above him with a sufficient amount of shadow covering. "THERE YOU ARE!" Sasuke tosses his kunai straight into the air and toward the tree branch above him. The kunai disappears into the shadow, sending a small splurge of blood out from the shadow. Keinea then emerges from the shadow directly beneath Sasuke, delivering a swift kick to Sasuke's chin sending him back and into the trunk of another tree. Keinea the attempts to flee the area on foot, running off toward the village with Sasuke's kunai still stuck in his leg, and a new one stuck in his right shoulder.
"This is insane . . . he is too strong . . . he is too smart . . . and he's too fast. I have to get out of here!" Keinea says to himself as he runs as fast as he can, hobbling horribly as both his wounds have severely hindered his mobility. He reaches back and removes the kunai from his knee, and then the one from his shoulder. Grimacing in pain, Keinea continues on his way back to the village.
Meanwhile, Sasuke stands up from his painful experience and spits blood out from his mouth. "Now you have made me mad!" The seal on the back of Sasuke's neck begins to open as Sasuke's curse seal begins to move across his entire body, riddling it with the heaven's seal's ominous black flame. Like a bullet from a gun Sasuke takes off in pursuit of Keinea, his speed more then doubled and his fists clenched and his arms swept back as he leaps from tree to tree with alarming speed.
Keinea reaches back into his pouch and removes a large scroll from his equipment. One the scroll is a set of kanji with the name "Yoshitsune" written on it. Keinea continues to try and make his way into the village, but deep down he knows that his chakra is running low, and his body has been ravaged. "I'm sorry brother, but I have to try and summon him. He may be my only chance of defeating this guy. Please Yoshitsune-sama . . . listen to me . . ." The hair on the back of Keinea's neck stands on end as he can feel the pressure of Sasuke's chakra moving in fast. "Shit! I don't have much time." Keinea says, as he wipes his thumb along the wound on his shoulder before opening the scroll and lining the text with his crimson signature. "This may turn out to be a really bad idea . . . but at this point I don't have a choice!"
Keinea turns around to see Sasuke closing in fast and he quickly ties the scroll back up and places it between his teeth as he crouches down to one knee to perform the summoning. Boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram, dragon, tiger, hare, ox, horse.
"NINPO: KUCHIYOSE . . ."
Sasuke lunges in forward only a few meters away from Keinea with his fist ready to strike as Keinea completes the summoning.
"YOJIMBO!" (Bodyguard)
A large puff of smoke fills the area blinding Sasuke temporarily as he continues on his downward angle only to be smacked away by an armored gauntlet holding a black wooden sheath less then two feet long with a six-inch handle on either end. Sasuke is catapulted up into the tree's where he grabs onto a branch before swinging around to land in a perfect perch atop the branch, as the curse seal recedes back into is containment. "What the hell!"
"What did you call me here for kid? And why am I the only one here?" A dark foreboding voice says from amongst the cloud of smoke. As it begins to dissipate, a figure starts to take shape. A dark figure sporting a traditional red Samurai armor set complete with helmet and mask stands in between Sasuke and Keinea, looking around the area with a set of bright white eyes, vacant of almost all feeling. "Answer me kid. Where is Benkei? And where is the other brat?"
Keinea bows before the armored warrior that stands less than six feet tall, only slightly taller then Keinea himself. "I'm sorry Yoshitsune-sama. I beg you . . . please fight with me."
"I don't answer to you kid, you should know that by now!" Yoshitsune snaps.
"I know, but I need your . . ."
"You wouldn't even be able to summon me if it wasn't for your forging of the summoning scroll. That and the fact that you share the same blood as your father, who was able to summon both of us at once. You and that brother of yours need to perform the technique in unison just to get us to come out." Yoshitsune crosses his arms in front of his chest and begins to tap his foot. "So just why in the hell should I help someone as pitiful and weak as you anyway?"
"Yoshitsune-sama, it is because I am weak that I require your help. This enemy is a formidable one that I was not able to handle by my lonesome, and I am confident that someone of your strength and wisdom can surely eliminate this arrogant foe." Keinea says with an obvious amount of flattery in his voice.
"Stop kissing my ass kid!" Yoshitsune scolds. "You didn't bring me out here just to . . ."
"What a useless summon you have here brat." Sasuke shouts, interrupting Yoshitsune in mid sentence much to the armored warriors disdain. "You can't even get this useless pawn of yours to fight without flattering his ass to death. What do you expect to accomplish? Keep yapping back and forth until I get bored and simply withdraw?"
Yoshitsune lowers his arms to his side and clasps his sheath hard in his right hand, turning his back to Keinea and staring a hole throw the arrogant Sasuke. "Hey kid," Yoshitsune says.
"Yes?" Keinea responds.
"Is that the punk that you need taken out?"
"Yes Yoshitsune-sama."
"Hmmmm." Yoshitsune raises his hand up to point up to Sasuke as he offers a traditional challenge to the perched sound nin. "Then he will die by my hand!" Yoshitsune clasps both handles of the sheath in each hand and then quickly swipes out the blades concealed inside with a speed so fast that neither shinobi can clearly see the two nineteen-inch blade wakizashi's (Japanese short swords) Yoshitsune then disappears without a trace leaving the sheath to fall to the ground.
"Where did he . . ." Sasuke cannot even finish his sentence before several rapid slashes cut away the tree branch on either side of Sasuke's position, sending him tumbling to the ground. Before he even hits the ground, Yoshitsune appears in mid air in front of him. Turning his blade around so that the dull side is exposed, Yoshitsune bats Sasuke out of mid air and straight to the ground below, hitting the ground hard at the exact same time as Yoshitsune's sheath.
"What the hell was that?" Sasuke asks himself as he quickly kicks up to his feet. "He moved so fast even I couldn't keep up with him." Before Sasuke can analyze any further, Yoshitsune strikes yet again, sneaking in behind Sasuke and delivering a brutal slash to the back of Sasuke's hamstrings. Sasuke grimaces in pain only for a second before Yoshitsune appears before him again and delivers a tremendous knee to just under Sasuke's chin, sending the sound nin tumbling backward.
Yoshitsune stands confident with his wakizashis drawn to his sides, "It seems your mouth is finally silent, maybe now you can offer me a real fight!"
Sasuke grinds his teeth as Yoshitsune's arrogant demeanor is enough to make the missing leaf nins blood boil. The seal on Sasuke's back begins to release as his curse seal expands to encompass his entire body with its sinister black flame. "Now let's see if I can shut YOU up!"
Elsewhere in the village Neji and Lee stand back to back against one another with concerned yet confident looks on their faces. Lee stands with his left arm behind his back and his right hand raised in front of him while Neji stands with his left palm at his hip and his right palm pointing forward. The two seem ready to fight as it soon revealed that the two of them are surrounded by roughly thirty of the invading shinobi.
"It doesn't look like there is any means of escape for us at this point." Neji examines the area with his Byakugan and can find no openings in which the two can exploit in order to escape. "I suppose we will just have to try and hold our ground until help arrives."
Lee shakes his head as an arrogant smile comes over his face. "I never thought you would fall back into the pessimistic type Neji."
"What are you talking about? We are outnumbered more then ten to one."
"It doesn't matter Neji!" Rock Lee's eyes flare up as the ever inspiring words of his sensei echo throughout his head. "We are both in the SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH! AND IT WOULD BE FOOLISH OF US TO TRY AND DENY OR STRENGTH AT THIS POINT! We can win here Neji. We just need to work together."
Neji closes his eyes as a confident smirk comes over his face as well. "You're right Lee. We should not take these opponents lightly at all, and this fight may cost both of us more then may be willing to give. But this is our home . . . and these guests . . . have overstayed their welcome. Get ready Lee!"
"YYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" (All right!)
All of the fighters stand ready throughout the village as all of the battles are ready to erupt. Tsunade continues her battle against her resurrect loved ones and her former comrade Orochimaru. Sasuke and Keinea's battle comes to a climax as Keinea's bodyguard Yoshitsune prepares for battle against the missing nin ready to fight in his curse seal level one form. Lee and Neji face overwhelming odds against a small army of invaders, and Hinata struggles to bring the unconscious Naruto to safety with the dangerous white shinobi in close pursuit. Jiraiya and the Elite S.I.C.T. team are still speeding their way home to aid in the fighting, while the Raikage looks onto the carnage in the village with a heavy burden of guilt weighing upon his heart.
Meanwhile, back in the thundering wasteland of the village of sin, the Raikage's adopted son Seshen Raiken, awakens from his battle with Toshida. The Cloud nin struggles to his feet and then begins his long return back to the rendezvous point he had with his father, completely unaware that the battle has begun without him.
(Authors Note: Sorry for the lack of updates folks. I know sometimes its frustrating to all three of you :P School this semester is insane for my course load and I am moving to the city sometime next week so I may not have many chances to write more in the near future. But be patient and I promise I will have it finished eventually.)