AN: Sorry it's been a while since I last updated…I'm back at uni now, and I'm having trouble sorting out the net connection in my room, so it's been a bit difficult. Also, I need to learn time-management skills. I hate work! I did intend on having all or most of this up before I came here… now it's two weeks into term. Sigh.
This chapter includes my favourite of my original jutsu. It's mainly my favourite because I only thought of what it would do after I already came up with the name for it, but I think it's funky :P. I plan to update again soon, but it looks like I have a busy week this week, so it might not be till the weekend.
Enjoy.
14- Isako's Strength
Gai decided to stand back and let his Genin fight when he realised the level of the attacking ninja. Neji alone could probably have handled them. One, however, looked as though he would cause much more of a problem. It was a ninja originally from the Hidden Falls village, obviously at Jounin level. Gai had him labelled as a threat and was planning on attacking himself.
The Falls ninja, however, was intent upon the oldest child of Umatatsu Isamu. When Gai tried to intervene, he was cut off by one of the other Missing-Nin. Isako was fighting the Falls Jounin, but doing so dragged her further away from the Leaf team and deeper into the forest. Gai tried once more to get to her, but one of the other ninja ran at him. In this moment of distraction, Isako was gone from sight.
At that moment he heard Tenten cry out in pain, and spun around to see what had happened. One of the enemy ninja had managed to slice her leg with a kunai.
"Tenten!" Lee shouted, running to her aide. Lee kicked the ninja squarely in the chest, sending him flying, and then he spun around to launch a combo of punches on a second. Neji was squaring off against one of the ninja who thought of himself as a Taijutsu specialist. He obviously hadn't fought a Hyuuga before.
Neji jumped towards him, easily blocking kicks and punches, dodging and diving out of the way, his palms easily swiping blows away, always with his eyes on the opponent. Those eyes that saw everything. Those eyes that could see the inner coils wrapped around the internal organs, carrying chakra around the body. Those eyes that could see to push chakra into those coils.
The enemy aimed a kick to Neji's head. Neji ducked underneath it and both his palms landed squarely in the centre of his opponent's chest. The ninja was pushed backwards, but managed to keep his feet for a second before dropping to his knees, coughing up mouthfuls of blood, confused as to how the blow could have caused so much damage. He got up slowly, trying to round on Neji again. Neji's response was ruthless. He aimed one of his Jyuuken attacks straight at his heart, once more sending him to the ground, this time never to stand again.
As Lee and Neji found themselves new opponents, Tenten stood slightly to one side. She looked over at Gai. Gai smiled and nodded at her, giving her a thumbs up. Tenten returned the smile. From somewhere, she produced a scroll. As she performed the necessary maneuvers to summon the weapons the scroll carried, Lee and Neji knocked down two more of the enemy ninja, only one of them still breathing. The remaining ninja started to attack, but Neji and Lee jumped back. It was then that the enemy saw Tenten, seemingly suspended in the air above them. By that point though, it was too late, as the rain of weaponry had already begun.
Seeing that the battle here was over, Gai turned to look for Isako. The Smoke ninja and her opponent were nowhere to be seen.
---
Jirou somehow managed to dodge the flailing fists of Naruto's Kage Bunshin only by using all the speed he could find in himself. He managed to land direct hits on a few of them as he dodged around them, but the remaining clones just kept on coming.
He dodged around another and saw the girl- Sakura- standing and watching, unsure of what to do. He knew he would have difficulty against the Uchiha, and this blonde boy was also proving to be a troublesome opponent, but she would be a much easier target. Then they would be working to protect her, which he could use to his advantage.
Ducking under three more attacks from the shadow clones, Jirou launched himself towards Sakura.
She saw him coming and looked startled for a fraction of a second. Then she pulled a kunai from her pouch and turned to face him. As he ran, Jirou formed a technique.
"Enton: Mahi Kemuri!" he shouted, using his paralysing smoke jutsu on the girl. She tried to move, but was unable to.
From nowhere the Uchiha kid appeared in front of Jirou, between him and Sakura. Jirou saw something terrifying; the red eyes of the Sharingan. He jumped and flipped away, trying to keep a hold of the paralysing jutsu so that the girl, at least, would not try and join the battle.
"Sakura-chan? What's wrong?" cried Naruto, rushing over to her as Sasuke chased after Jirou.
"Naruto!" she said. "I can't move! It must be some form of Kanashibari!" she said, "body binding." Naruto stared at her for a moment, wondering what to do. "Don't worry about me," she said, a weak smile on her face. Her limbs quivered as she attempted to break free of the jutsu, but Jirou had enough concentration even through Sasuke's onslaught, to maintain enough chakra to keep the jutsu in effect. "Your opponent is over there," she said, her eyes gesturing to where Sasuke was fighting.
Sasuke had his back to them and was dodging Jirou's movements easily, his own attacks getting through to land vicious hits to the enemy ninja. Then, he jumped back, using one of his favourite Katon jutsu to rain fire down on his opponent.
The distraction caused Jirou's hold on Sakura to weaken, and she dropped to the ground in the second that her body became free. Then, Jirou renewed the hold and she was once more immobile. Naruto then listened to her, running towards Jirou with an angry scream.
"Your friend will not be able to move unless I release her," said Jirou, smiling at Sasuke. His pale grey eyes seemed blank as they peered out from his round face. It gave him quite an eerie appearance, but not as fearsome as the Uchiha bloodline, the eyes that could see through any technique.
"Then I will force you to release her!" he said. Jirou grinned as the young Genin attacked again. Sakura found herself watching the fight from a distance, unable to move or help, or even properly see what was happening.
From nearby, where he and Genma were still fighting the other ninja, Kakashi glanced over and saw Sasuke fighting Jirou. He saw the Sharingan in his eyes and his eyes widened in surprise. His Genin had not told him he had awakened that ability yet. His surprise, though, was short lived, when he was forced to dodge an Earth element technique from one of the attacking ninja. Genma jumped away from them to Kakashi's side, nodding at the other Jounin. Kakashi smiled. It was time to end this.
---
Isako chased the Falls ninja into the forest, not realising how far she was getting from Gai and the others. When her opponent finally turned to square off against her, she could no longer hear the sounds of the battle behind them. She looked around and couldn't see Gai or his Genin anywhere nearby.
She heard laughter from somewhere nearby and jerked around. The Falls-Nin seemed to have disappeared. Her eyes flashed around the forest as she tried to figure out where the laughter was coming from. It seemed to be all around her.
"Damn it," she whispered to herself, feeling distinctly like she had let herself walk into a trap. She looked around her, wondering what she could do. She considered using a Summoning, but a horse would just make a bigger target. She looked up, just as a rain of kunai came down at her. She jumped aside, then noticed an exploding tag attached to one of the kunai.
It caught light as she saw it and as she tried to run, she was pushed forward by the blast and thrown several metres into the air and through the forest. She landed heavily, but forced herself to get up, looking around for the next attack.
The Falls-Nin appeared in front of her as she dragged herself to her feet.
"You should have stayed with your friends. I am a Jounin. You cannot hope to defeat me at the level you are at," he said. Isako stared at him.
"You fight for power and greed, but I fight for my village. When you fight for something worthwhile, you gain true strength," she retorted, her eyes defiant. She was tense, her body like a coiled spring ready to move. Her tumble had not done much more than muddy her dress.
"I have heard the same said many times. All those who said it are behind me now, broken and defeated. True strength comes from fighting for yourself and what you want with all you have. Thoughts of others, all this nobility and altruistic rubbish, these things just clutter your mind so that you cannot truly become strong." Isako shook her head.
"My village is everything to me. With that strength in my heart I can draw more from the things that I love. That power can defeat any obstacle, no matter how difficult it may seem."
The Missing-Nin frowned angrily, growling at her. Isako said nothing, instead performing a sequence of hand seals. 'I may not be a genius like you, Sharino, but I am an Umatatsu!' she thought. She completed the seal and stared into the eyes of her enemy. "Enton: Akuryuu Kemuri no jutsu! Smoke element: evil Dragon smoke technique." A tendril of smoke built out of thin air, forming the shape of a dragon with fiery hollows for eyes.
Eyes wide, the Falls ninja was fixed to the spot as he watched the jutsu take form, then rush towards him with a howl of wind and a roar like flames catching on dry wood. The smoke dragon cannoned towards him at a frightening speed, and then it wrapped itself around him, curling the long form around his body several times.
He screamed as the dragon forced its way into him, the smoke disappearing into his skin.
"The smoke will leak into your bloodstream and chakra circulatory system, not only starving your cells of oxygen, but preventing your chakra flow…" she said.
The Falls Jounin screamed again, falling to his knees. "As I said," Isako continued. "It is when we fight for something important to us that we become truly strong!"