Hello again! Here is the next wonderful chapter. I'd like to thank Achilla for reviewing so much! It gives me confidence and makes me write faster. Well, what is going to happen in this chapter? You'll have to see… here goes… Lights… Camera… ACTION!
: x :
Aki focused her powers onto the metal bars of the cage. Fire engulfed them and slowly, an enlarging puddle of metal crap oozed onto the floor. Aki crawled slowly through the metal before it was cooled off.
"Awh.. Look what I did now, all this metal stuff." Aki used her powers over metal to get it off her clothing. Then she lifted one leg up and seemed to be balancing on the other, but then she lifted that one up too, she was sitting in mid-air. "Come on, we have to hurry." The floating Aki turned her back on the three appalled shinobi and floated over to the dungeon's main entrance. She turned back around when she noticed they weren't following, "They do check you know."
Neji, Tenten and Lee started walking after Aki, "Why didn't you ever do this before?"
"Because I always got caught."
"Oh."
Aki sailed up the stairs. There were two people 'patrolling,' if you could call it that. They were to busy eating and getting drunk. Before they knew it, they were both on the ground suffocating because Aki had pressed their opening points.
She continued gliding through the castle, not getting caught once. There was one close call when Lee accidentally knocked over one of the creaky suits of armor. Luckily, Aki knew the fortress like the back of her hand and was able to quickly set up a mock setting. To the Akatsuki, it seemed that the curtain over a large mirror had become loose and knocked over the ancient suit of armor. Aki had quickly used her water mirror spell. But the Akatsuki guards, being suspicious and all, stuck around a bit and didn't leave that fast. Struggling, Aki had to extinguish her wind carrying her so she crumpled down onto the floor, sitting on one knee. She had held it there cringing every time the mirror faltered. Panting heavily she muttered a few words and the mirror began spinning. It spun faster and faster, apparently getting stronger. Then she reached her limit. Aki's mirror slowly faded, but by chance the Akatsuki left. The water barrier then splashed onto the floor, followed by Aki, eyes closed, who fell from the effort. She lay there in the water from her mirror. Tenten rushed up and flipped her over. She wasn't wet amazingly, and neither was the floor. Tenten ran her hand through the water and found that her fingers remained dry.
"Aki?" Tenten motioned Neji to come over, he splashed over and bent down beside Tenten, "Take her." He looked at her curiously, as if to say, Why me? Tenten read his expression and said, "Because you're her brother, I can't carry anyone and Lee just doesn't want to."
Sighing, Neji sort of crawled forward and carried Aki as if she weighed nothing. (I guess shinobi are really strong.) Then hurrying, Lee, Tenten and Neji all ran towards the exit that Aki had tried to lead them too.
I remember this. I've done this before. I think I like playing big brother. Neji smiled ever so slightly. Feeling Aki stir, he slowed down. Tenten and Lee took this as a resting point and sat on the floor beside Aki and Neji.
Aki opened her eyes, they were sparkling blue. "ACK!" She coughed a bit and propped herself up with one elbow, "Crap. Did I go cold?" Tenten and Lee slowly nodded. Cursing Aki tried to get into a sitting position but failed. "Grr. I need to master my powers." Snapping her fingers, a gush of wind came and helped Aki up. She was soon floating in the air again, "Thanks Neji. Sorry to burden you."
Neji realized she was talking with her, "Oh." He stood up and brushed her away, "Whatever."
Aki took that as a 'you're welcome,' and was soon off again towards the exit.
"Aki?" Tenten inquired, "Why are your eyes white?"
Aki continued looking forward and said slowly, "I don't think I get it. It is in my blood. The Byakuugan, I mean."
"But a second ago, your eyes were blue."
Aki looked at her. Aki's eyes were a pale, pale, blue like blue food coloring in one liter of milk. "Oh." She turned forward again, "That's because of the power I use. I used water, so my eyes turned blue."
"Is that why you're eyes were red back at the temple?" Aki nodded slowly and smiled.
"My normal eye color is white, like the wind. I have only mastered the elements: earth, wind, metal, and wood. I can't do much else, or if I do, it takes a lot of my energy. (Aki has control of all elements that I can think of. This doesn't include the periodic table, by the way. The elements I thought of were: Wind, water, earth, fire, light, dark, metal, wood, and the other one that will be revealed later) And since Itatchi had already drained my damn powers with his little barrier trick, I was weakened even more. I don't usually pass out like that." After Neji and Aki defeated 6 different guards and had pressed their opening points, they reached the main door. It was made of metal, and there were many locks on it, and of course, before they came there were many guards. Aki worked her 'magic' and opened the door.
As they stepped out and took in the scent of fresh morning dew (yes it was morning, they were there that long because they're stupid), the sunlight stung their dark-phased eyes. They stood on a secluded cliff area that rose above a forest. Aki quietly slipped down from her wind and stood, although awkwardly, on the edge of the steep cliff.
"Er… what do we do?" Lee asked, he eyed the cliff cautiously. Can you jump that? No, but maybe if I did Gai-sensei would be proud of me! Lee walked over Aki and almost jumped off if not for the arm that stuck out. "What?"
"Don't jump. I know what's down there. Trust me you don't want to get in a mess with them." Aki sat down and soon floated again, she was on her cloud of wind. She made a few hand signs and muttered things really quickly, "Tenten-chan, pick an element."
"Um… okay, um… Water." Aki's arms flailed out as she performed the movements to create water. Soon, a ring of water appeared in the air. It was flowing within itself and didn't get the ground wet, it didn't drip.
"Step in the ring," As soon as Tenten stepped into the ring, another one appeared and she was kneeling down inside as the two rings took orbit around each other. "Lee-kun, pick another element."
"EARTH!" Aki muttered a slight 'ha' and the cliff expanded, it broke off a big rock under Lee and picked him up.
Aki opened her eyes, "I guess the only one left for you is fire." She smirked, "Sorry if I let you fall, I haven't mastered fire yet remember?" She laughed and then conjured up and fiery chariot like object. "Sit on it."
Neji eyed the thing thoughtfully, "You…" Neji pointed at the chariot, "Expect me to ride on that fire thing that can probably burn me?"
"It won't burn," Aki walked over, or more like glided over, to the chariot and touched it. She ran her hand over the wheels a few times and then she put her face to the side of the carriage. When she looked back at him, she had no burns whatsoever. "See?"
Neji shrugged and lifted a foot into the chariot, for a second, he thought that it had singed his sandals, but then when he looked at the soles; it was the perfect blue that it was. He lifted his other foot inside and stood there in place.
"Well, can you guys drive yourselves?" Lee, Tenten and Neji all looked at her in disbelief, "Oh yeah. You don't know how… Well all you have to do is urge the element forwards with your mind." Lee advanced a meter so that he wasn't anymore on solid ground. He suddenly broke into a sweat and asked in a panicky voice.
"Aki, AKI! Ahh! What if I fall off?"
Aki sniggered and went to follow Lee so that she too was off solid ground, she rose higher so that her companions were almost little dots on the ground. She then stood up and jumped off.
"AHH! WHAT IS SHE DOING!" Lee screamed. They watched as she fall from the sky, but when she was just about their level, she stopped abruptly and faced them.
"You won't fall. Well if you do, just call your element over, it should come."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Then the giant snake down there," She pointed with her finger down the cliff, "Will eat you up."
Tenten and Lee stared at each other with huge eyes. Neji sighed. Aki grinned.
"I'm only joking. Don't worry; I'll make sure you do not fall. Except for you nii-san, I told you that I haven't mastered fire. Good luck!" Aki motioned with her hand to come, "Come on! Let's go." She pointed at the other side of the canyon, "There used to be a bridge that led from here to there but the Akatsuki destroyed it after the first time I tried to escape. I was a genin."
"Aren't you a genin now?" Neji asked forgetfully.
"Nope, I beat one of the Akatsuki, I'm a Jōnin now!" She smiled and she started advancing on her cloud of wind. Neji, Tenten and Lee were soon after her. Their hair blew as the air rushed up to meet their faces. Lee shook a little and got scared out of his mind, he clung to the boulder. Aki watched him from the corner of her eye, "Om." She whispered. She urged the boulder to grow sides so it was like a chair, then she willed the wind to lift Lee up and sit him upright. Lee was shocked but soon recovered and thanked Aki fully. She smiled in return.
If you were on the ground, you would just think that those four were just passing clouds. The four flew safely most of the time and was almost to the other cliff. But if you were on earth, not flying, like Mr. Snake there, you could've warned them to move. But Mr. Snake, being a snake and all, didn't, and saw the arrows that shoot from the castle with deadly accuracy.
Aki stopped suddenly, falling behind the rest. She felt a bad presence but thought it was only the snake. She was wrong, of course, and it was proven by the sudden pain on her lower back. She looked and saw a thick arrow, fletched with swan feathers, sticking out of her back. She ordered some fire to try and burn in, but stopped immediately when she figured that these arrows were from the castle. She looked at her companions, and saw that they were fine, fluttering along like butterflies. A rainstorm of arrows was approaching quickly, and Aki knew it, no, she SAW it. A forest of arrows seemed to come nearer to the foursome. She quickly took out her wind so she could create a strong barrier for her companions. The arrows bumped onto the swirling wind like people knocking on the door. Neji was the first to look back.
He first saw the arrow points that had halfway made it through. He looked back even more and found that Aki was not there anymore. Frantically looking around, he found her propelling head-first to the ground. He gasped, catching the attention of his other companions. They quickly turned course and sped towards the falling Aki, but unfortunately, she fell faster. Her body was slim and well-built, so she was aero-dynamic and shot through the air like a dart.
Aki regained consciousness about a kilometer before hitting the ground. Spinning around expertly, she landed as gracefully as a cat on the hard ground. She then felt the burning pain of her leg and her knees buckled from under her and she fell on them, which, by the way, hurt even more. Neji, Tenten and Lee came by soon afterwards and helped her support herself with an old oak tree. Their floats disappeared behind them, extinguishing with a slight pop. Aki pulled out an arrow from her back and a she pulled out a smaller one from her arm. The smaller one, unfortunately, was soaked in a sedating liquid that spread at light-speed through her body. She didn't tell her companions.
They thought that everything had gone bad, but wouldn't have IMAGINED anything to be worse. As usual, they were wrong. A slight hissing sound made its way into each person's mind. Being shinobi, they knew exactly what it was. Afraid to look behind them they stood stock still waiting for the snake to come and bite them. Aki had dealt with the snake before, when she was eight the second time she tried to escape. Aki still didn't know its weakness, but was determined to beat it, even at the state she was in. She quickly formed a katana knife with her skills over metal. She then used water to muffle the sounds of its chains.
"Kage Bunshin." She whispered so only the person beside her, which was Neji heard. The clones leapt into the trees and Aki remained there all rigid standing.
The Snake struck. Its tail whipped Tenten, Lee and Neji to one side. But when it got to Aki, she disappeared in a breeze. The snake, which was over 100 feet long and represented a Basilisk, hissed madly. It had scales as hard as diamonds and the color of deep blue sapphires. The scales were adorned with a few spikes that started on its head to the back of its tail. Occasionally, it spread its thin, leathery wings and was able to fly, but it hadn't used that since it was a ten-year old snake. Mr. Snake's eyes were glinting rubies that scratched deep into anyone's core when looked at. It was sort of like petrifying, except that this person usually can't be healed unless healed by an expert healer. Normal doctors wouldn't work. The snake slithered its way to Tenten, Lee and Neji, who were lying on the ground, and hissed.
Tenten heard a little voice in her head, Look at me, look at me.
Lee could've swore that someone had said something, and looking around to see, he found two perfect rubies in front of his face. A shiver ran down his spine as he fell rigid to his back. He lay there, neither moving nor breathing. Tenten shrieked, "LEE!" Mr. Oh-so-kind-snake was fast and slithered to where Lee's body was. When Tenten looked, she too stared into the blood-red eyes. She shrieked something high and shrill and collapsed as well.
Neji, by now, had figured not to look at the monster straight into its eyes. But still, the voice in his head urged him to do it. He slowly removed his hands from his white eyes and gazed into the red-eyes. A deep fear erupted from his heart. He imagined people dying, he saw his father being killed. He saw himself, dead. He saw everyone around him and close to him dead. Neji stood in the scene of his demise and cried a bit. The redness of the area caught the attention of his eyes. Black clouds strolled by. He saw a circle of nine people in front of him. Inside the circle there stood a person, but then the circle started spinning. Neji yelped, beginning to feel dizzy. He heard a faint voice calling to him, it sounded familiar, but he couldn't pin point it. He stared at the spinning circle. "—ji!" He thought he caught a glimpse of one of the nine people; he had blonde hair and looked like he was in pain. "—eji!" Neji heard the voice again, not able to do anything, he stared at the person in the center. "Neji!" He looked up and for a second, his head stopped spinning, but then something glinted at the corner of his eye. He looked back at the person in the center of the circle, for a second he thought he saw two people, standing back to back. "NEJI!" Neji snapped his head away from the redness. He saw Aki standing over him, back towards him. She was fighting off the snake.
So far, she was able to get one of the jewels out of its eye socket. The snake had shrieked and hissed in pain. Aki jumped up, and carried by the wind was able to land on the snake's head. "NEJI!"
He looked at Aki who was struggling with the snake. Her side was bleeding heavily, where the arrow had struck and it seemed she was in intense pain. Neji was up in a few seconds and leapt towards the snake. Activating his byakuugan, he took a white bloody thing and rammed it straight into one of the snake's vital points. The snake reeled in pain, but still did not die. Aki slipped from her post and hung perilously from one of the horns of the snake. She kicked out the other eye jewel. The snake shrieked. Aki saw its real eyes under the rubies and took her Katana and then she thrust it through the snake's left eye. It cussed in the form of hisses and the fell onto the ground. It hissed a few more times, thrashing its tail. One of the spikes struck Neji in the leg and he fell over. Then the snake was silent.
Aki stood up from under its head triumphantly, but slowly. She smiled at the fallen Neji and ran over as soon as she got over the snake's large body. The battle scene was wicked. Many trees lay on the ground, and branches with leaves scattered onto the floor. There were many blood stains on the ground, mostly from the snake but also from Aki. She looked fazed at the defeating of the snake. Apparently, its heart was actually in its eyes. The rubies had served for protection for a few hundred years. Aki picked up the two rubies that she had knocked out and carried them over to Neji. "We'll make a profit out of this." She grinned sheepishly. Then she noticed the spike protruding from his leg. "Oh crap." She bent over and took it from his leg, he flinched from the pain. Aki noticed this and looked at him accusingly. She then used her powers to form a bandage, although too late. Neji started to feel drowsy. "Crap. Crap. Crap. Rap. Ap."
Then he slipped into a friendly darkness. Aki stood up and tottered on the spot. Neji was also injected with the poison from the snake. The snake, before it dies, extracts a deadly poison called Arsenic. Luckily, the snake, being so old, diluted the poison after the five hundred years that it lived. The Arsenic poison was not as useful to the snake as it would've been about 300 years ago. Instead of inflaming all the capillaries like it would've of, it only caused a coma that might go to death if not treated quickly enough. Aki stumbled over to where Tenten and Lee were lying, petrified. She quickly healed them and almost collapsed from the amount of power she used. When they awoke, they both felt a little giddy and sat there for a while. Aki went over to Neji, holding her arm as it stung more and more every second (remember, the arrow that was poisoned?). She held an arm over his face and then she lifted it off. Before she could mutter anything, she found that the world started going sideways. She had fallen, the last thing she could remember was the cries of Lee and Tenten… then everything was black.
The chapter is done. What in the world will happen next? READ AND REVIEW! PLEASE! I need feedback.
By the way thanks to:
Achillea
Chaimori
and Fear of Darkness
for reviewing i mean. Especially to Achillea!