Completely imaginary, worthless and utterly meaningless cookies to anyone who knows why this chapter is titled as it is.
Also, this chapter is not as direct as previous chapters, but I believe that it advances the plot none the less.
Chapter Seven: Turning in his Grave
Dust passed them by, drifting along the winds aimlessly. Moving at a relaxed pace, Shikamaru continued down the street. Things were so empty in this part of town. It was nice, really. Of course, there was a good reason things were empty, but he preferred not to think about that. Why complicate an essentially good thing?
Temari moved beside him at a similar pace, eyes on the ground. Slowly and subtly she edged over, pushing him toward the wall. Nothing he couldn't see coming light-years away, but she didn't particularly need to do anything of the sort. Eventually she turned and calmly pinned him to the wall. He went along with it amiably.
"You know they're there, right?"
"Yeah, yeah..."
"It's only a matter of time," she whispered just over his shoulder. "We might as well strike first. The usual."
"Ah, but that'd be such a bother..."
"Shikamaruuu..."
"Alright, alright." Surging chakra into his feet, he launched himself into the air just as his wife skidded backward into the street. From the nearby rooftops the hidden attackers realized their presence was discovered and rushed to attack. At least twelve, Temari noted, three or four of them with perhaps some skill. Better than last time.
Their shuriken rained toward her, and she calmly deflected them with her fan without opening it. The majority of them were building on one side of the street opposite her, apparently aiming to attack in conjunction. She snapped her fan out behind her, making them pause. That was all that was necessary; she didn't need to attack... yet.
Abruptly they realized that Shikamaru was suspended in midair between the groups, hands flying through hand seals. His shadow on the ground shattered, flying into dozens of separate jagged pieces. Still in midair, Shikamaru slapped his hands together a final time. Each of the shadows burst into the air and in three dimensions, at exactly the same moment Temari whipped her fan before her.
A flood of chakra built shuriken was upon the warriors before they completely knew what was happening. Most of them fell backward, dead or dying, as Shikamaru landed lightly on the street. Two of the warriors had weathered the blast, and one of them managed to replace himself with a clone.
When two of them dove at Shikamaru from opposite directions, he merely yawned. Midway through the motion his hand lowered into a hand seal, even as they hurled several kunai in his direction. His shadow behind him abruptly split into two columns. They snapped around the legs of both his opponents, binding them in place. When his shadow converged with the flickering shadows of the shuriken, they stopped in midair.
Calmly Temari ducked, avoiding the kick she had fully expected from behind. She whirled to strike with a full wind blast, but her opponent recovered before she could get it off. His other foot knocked the fan away from her, out of her reach. Smirking, he moved in for the kill.
One of Temari's hands whipped up. A fierce burst of wind moved in conjunction with it, extending beyond her hand and to her opponent. Abruptly the arm he had intended to attack with was disconnected, falling to the ground bloodily. Crying out in pain, the shinobi grabbed at his shoulder. The next instant his eyes tightened, and his cloak expanded from him, revealing dozens of exploding notes. In one moment his chakra would-
Temari's hand struck the side of his neck, and he collapsed instantly. She turned away from him without a second glance in time to see Shikamaru end his part of the battle. His kick sent one of the warriors hurtling back as his shadow jutsu briefly applied fatal pressure to the other. Both of his opponents fell away and generated clouds of dust when they hit the ground.
"Theoretically they're supposed to give up after this attack," Shikamaru commented idly, scuffing one of his sandals on the road. "Such a waste of time."
"With any luck, Sasuke-san and company will put an end to this," Temari added, walking to stand beside him.
"Yes... I hope they can." While brooding, Shikamaru absentmindedly kicked her fan up, catching it with one hand and giving it back to her. She strapped it on her back once more and they continued down the street.
"We've done what we can; it isn't our problem now," she said somberly, then grinned. "Let's go, we have more important things to do."
The campfire was noisy, as it usually was. Truthfully speaking, it was not the campfire that was noisy, but the people sitting around it. There were three of them there, all of them in their early teens. Most of the noise was coming from the two of them, who were arguing animatedly across the fire.
"No way. There's no way they'd ever let you be an Anbu!"
"How can you say that, Hilsoth-kun?" the other boy demanded. "They let you in, didn't they?"
"They let me in because I'm good! You, on the other hand, aren't fit to lick an Anbu's boots!" He stuck his tongue out at his partner, Faunus, and sat back with his arms folded.
"You're an Anbu, and I'm fit to kick your butt," Faunus shot back. "The instant we get back to the village, I'm applying for the position. Then you won't be able to order me around anymore, will you?"
Their partner didn't say anything, nervously looking between them. She was a small girl about their age, with long blond hair and pretty yellow eyes. This was just like them, to be arguing all the time. They were on a mission, but it was pretty low level, so they weren't taking it very seriously. Her healing skills probably wouldn't even be needed tonight.
"Listen," Hilsoth was shouting at the moment, "just because your dad was a hero doesn't mean-" His voice faded away as he saw the anguished expression on his partner's face. The other boy's eyes flashed angrily, and he turned away, facing the shadows. For a moment Hilsoth reached after him, then he tightened his fist and pulled it back.
"Hilsoth-san," the girl spoke up softly. "That wasn't fair."
"I know, Liana-chan," he sighed, and shook his head. "Sometimes he just makes me so... frustrated, I..." Wearily he got up and moved somewhat around the campfire. "Faunus... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring your father up."
"Then don't in the future," Faunus told him coldly. He did, however, turn back slightly. "I'm still gonna make Jounin before you do."
"Sure you will! I-" Abruptly their fire was quenched, plunging them into darkness. Something black dropped from above, and two silver blades flashed in the starlight. Faunus and Hilsoth both wove away from them on instinct. Their eyes began to adjust almost immediately, and they saw a warrior wielding two blades in the center of the camp. Liana had crumpled back on the ground, but she seemed mostly unhurt.
Their attacker struck almost instantly, rushing at Faunus. He managed to duck the first slash, and jerked his head to the left to evade the other stabbing blade. Immediately he lashed out, making his opponent stumble back slightly, but the warrior recovered quickly and hit back, bashing him across the face. As he fell, the assassin raised his blades and-
A whip of chakra snapped around his wrists before he could strike. One hand in a seal, the other holding the end of the whip, Hilsoth jerked their opponent off his feet and into the air. Back on his feet, Faunus hurled a kunai at him. It struck, though slightly off its mark, and the warrior lost his grip on his blade.
With startling agility, the assassin managed to slip out of the chakra whip before he smashed into the ground, instead leaping away. He landed at the campfire, facing off with them now without his blades. Faunus had his hands up in a seal, and Hilsoth was spinning his whip about himself with a slight grin. The enemy shinobi turned and ran. Liana gave a slight cry before he grabbed her and leaped into the air.
"No!" Faunus cried, finishing another seal. His eyes blazed like molten lava, and a beam of chakra exploded from him. It barely whizzed over Liana's shoulder, piercing her kidnapper through the heart. Both of them crashed to the ground, but Hilsoth moved beneath Liana and caught her neatly.
"Now who could that have been?" Hilsoth wondered, setting his partner down gently.
"Whoever he was, he sure hit hard," Faunus muttered. "I think this is going to bruise."
"Oh! Let me see that." Liana hastened over to him and examined the injury. "It isn't a critical injury, though it would probably hurt pretty badly. I should be able to fix it." Her hands began to hum with energy as she built her healing jutsu. She gently touched a finger to the bruise, and it vanished in a soft glow.
"Thanks." Faunus nodded to her, then glanced to Hilsoth. "Do you think we should report this, or finish up our mission first?"
"It isn't too hard," he answered. "We should be able to hurry through it and then report back without any difficulty."
At just that moment four dark forms dropped from above, blades slashing. All three shinobi managed to throw themselves out of the way of the blows, but the new set of attackers was already following up. A palm struck Faunus in the chest, and he hurtled backward. In midair he managed to regain control of himself, only to be grabbed from behind by another of the enemy shinobi.
Liana shrank back from the battle, even as Hilsoth began lashing out on either side of him with two whips. One of the shinobi was knocked into the air by it, but another caught the chakra whip in one hand, then rushed forward and grabbed Hilsoth's neck. For a moment he struggled, then he collapsed to the ground limply.
The sword sang through the air, cutting a gash across Faunus's chest. He cried out, and flames began shooting wildly from his eyes. Several of the shinobi were blasted backward, and Faunus wrenched himself from his opponent's grasp. Whirling, he tackled his opponent to the ground.
There was a scuffle, then a pause. Moments later, the shinobi in black rose to his feet, then glanced back at the camp darkly. The other three emerged from the trees, smoking but still alive. Liana was trapped between the four of them, and her gaze flickered between them swiftly as she shrank down to the ground.
"Hey," one of the assassins asked, speaking over her head to his partners. "Do orders say anything about what we have to do to our targets?"
"Only that we eventually kill them," his partner answered. "I think we have free reign other than that."
"Good," the third smirked. He reached forward and grabbed Liana's wrist. "I was thinking-"
Abruptly she smiled at him, and a wave of electricity coursed through his body. For a moment he writhed in the air, mouth open in a wordless scream, then he collapsed to the ground, blackened skin smoking faintly. Cursing, the other three shinobi attacked.
The first struck at Liana in a broad horizontal swipe, and a blade of electricity exploded from her hand to deflect it. He managed to pull his blade away with only a slight jolt, but she was already making a one-handed seal with her other hand. Her blade snaked out, curving around him. It jerked his lifeless body over her head, making him collide with the shinobi attacking from behind.
As both of them crashed backward, Liana whirled just as the last of the shinobi attacked from the side. Her fingernails extended swiftly, each of them tipped by a clear liquid. She jabbed her hand into the side of the attacking shinobi. His attack halted almost instantly; for a moment he remained on his feet, gagging, then he collapsed to the ground.
Tossing aside the body of his partner, the remaining attacker flipped back to his feet. Both of his hands were gloved, and long claws shot from these gloves as he dropped into a fighting stance. With a slight roar he charged on the girl, who did not move until he was almost upon her, hands frozen in a seal.
"Tsa!" she cried, splaying her fingers directly before his face. He stumbled and fell back, clutching his eyes, which were now a solid black color and could see nothing. Before he could go far, Liana attacked, her foot lashing out and splintering his shin. As he fell forward she backhanded him to a horizontal position before her and then drove her knee up into his spine. When he dropped to the ground he did not move.
Twenty minutes later the team was investigated due to chakra signs that resembled a battle that had been emitted from their direction. The Anbu found the three of the shinobi still alive at their camp, five bodies lying about them, numerous weapons scattered about.
"How are they, Liana-chan?" one of the Anbu asked, flipping up his mask to glance down at the small medical shinobi sitting meekly on a log.
"Hilsoth has a minor concussion that should heal completely," she told him softly. "I couldn't heal the wound on Faunus's chest right here, but back at the village it should be fine."
"Glad to hear it. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that they didn't hurt you."
"Yeah," she answered, smiling nervously. "Pretty lucky."
The morning wind blew a few stray leaves across the ground. It briefly curled around his legs, toyed with his cloak and then swept on. Sasuke's eyes were closed, as he took a moment to merely listen to the sounds of the beginning day. More accurately, the lack of sounds. Everything was silent and still... peaceful. With a slight sigh he turned back to the camp.
Ashes remained where their fire had long since burned out. Ino and Sakura lay on opposite sides of it, sprawled between their blankets, hair falling over their faces. Hinata lay to one side on her stomach, arms curled beneath her. He was going to regret this, he knew, but it was necessary.
Walking beside Sakura, he gently kicked her. She woke up groggily, mumbling something incomprehensible, but Sasuke was already jabbing Ino awake. For a moment she sat up and yawned in a most unladylike fashion before abruptly seeing Sasuke and cutting off awkwardly. Ignoring her, Sasuke moved to wake Hinata, but discovered that she was already rousing herself.
"We have a long way to go," Sasuke announced. "Along the way, we're going to train. Though we may be strong enough on our own, we aren't really a team. When we arrive, we need to be ready."
"Training?" Ino groaned. "We're going to train?"
"Do you think you're above it?" Sasuke asked, tilting his head back and looking down at her. She quickly hastened to answer, and Sakura snickered at her, but he was moving on before they could speak. "To that end, I need to know what you're capable of. For now, all three of you are going to fight me."
"All three of us?" Sakura asked incredulously. This time it was her turn to receive a cold stare from Sasuke and Ino's turn to snicker.
"We're not trying to kill each other," Sasuke went on, "but I don't expect you to go easy on me. I won't do the same for you." Turning swiftly, he vanished into the forest. The other three followed him, Hinata taking a deep breath and fidgeting. This was going to be terrible...
Ahead of them, Sasuke stopped and turned when he found a suitable area. With a single leap, he vaulted to a tree branch above, landing easily. Again the others followed him, perched on various branches about him. Taking note of their positions, Sasuke pulled off his long cloak and hung it on a branch above him, revealing light grey pants and a flak jacket beneath.
Then he promptly vanished. All three started, surprised at the raw speed displayed. Sensing a chakra snap into being behind her, Hinata dove forward, narrowly evading a fist moving toward the back of her head. He was really serious about not going easy on them. Her hands touched the tree lightly, and she swung both legs at Sasuke. Gliding away from both her kicks, he vanished once more.
Appearing on the forest floor, he leapt up toward Sakura, nearly blazing with chakra. Immediately she hurled several shuriken toward him, and he dissolved before them. Her hand was midway to her kunai pouch when Sasuke's hand clamped over her wrist; he was already spinning to kick her in the side of the head.
Hurling shuriken of her own, Ino sent a barrage toward Sasuke. To her surprise, he managed to not only avoid the attack by flipping forward, he kept his grip on Sakura's arm and slammed her into the tree trunk. With a silver rasp his kunai slid forward, but she vanished in a puff of chakra when it struck her.
On a lower branch, Hinata raised two fingers before her face and focused. Nearly flying up, she landed directly behind him, palm moving toward his back. With startling speed he caught her wrist, and she shrank back. That automatic reaction barely saved her from his swipe at her head. She jerked out of his grasp and vaulted away before he could strike again.
Ino converged upon Sasuke from two opposite directions. He ignored the clone completely and grasped the other's arm about the elbow. Gasping, Ino tried to pull away but discovered his grip was like a vise. It was tightening, too, forcing her elbow out of position like he was going to break it.
At that moment Sakura tossed several shuriken from an upward branch. Sasuke deflected them effortlessly with one hand- and Hinata's palm struck his back. For a moment he pitched forward, apparently damaged, but then he dissolved in a shower of mist. This time, no attack came immediately.
"Where is he?" Ino hissed, glancing about. The three subconsciously formed a triangle facing out. Suddenly the formerly innocent shadows of the forest seemed suspicious and dark.
"He's trying to psych us out," Sakura observed. "If he can get us off guard enough, he can strike before we can build a defense."
"You might be smarter than me, but sometimes you stated the blindly obvious."
"Ssh. I'm trying to concentrate." Sakura closed her eyes and brought both hands to her forehead. "I'm the only one of us who stands a chance of anticipating how he's going to attack. So far, he's been using hit and run tactics, which probably me-" Her voice cut off abruptly, but she was too late to do anything over than save herself. Forcing chakra into her feet, she burst from the tree limb.
She had barely left it when Sasuke morphed into being from the shadows, catching Ino's arm again and jerking it behind her back painfully. Landing on a nearby trunk, Sakura turned in time to realize that Hinata had replaced herself with a tree branch and that Sasuke's kunai was going to strike Ino's neck in a moment. Part of her mind toyed with the idea of letting him do it, but she knew he really wouldn't and that not doing anything would reflect badly upon her.
Formulating chakra, she leapt from the tree down toward him. Several dozen clones slid a kunai to hand at the same instant, flooding toward him. Flipping his kunai to his middle finger, Sasuke blew through his thumb and index finger, sending a stream of fire that enveloped all the attacking Sakuras. She barely managed to get into a defensive seal in time, and she could feel the flames biting away at her chakra.
When the blast faded, it was all she could do to land on a lower branch, then fall to one knee. Ino smirked, both at her rival failing and at what she was about to do. Her spirit flew backward, toward Sasuke at point-blank range... and suddenly he was in front of her body. Almost spitefully he glanced toward her spirit, then drove a palm into her body's forehead. The blow knocked her prone on the broad branch.
Turning immediately, Sasuke swung a broad kick at Hinata, who barely ducked out of the way. She moved forward to strike him, but he brushed her arm aside easily. His fist flew toward her head, but when she tried to catch his arm he jerked it away before she could make contact. Back stepping, Hinata avoided a flashing kick at her shins, then attacked. This time her palm hit his chest, and he staggered backward, his eyes momentarily wide-
Then he recovered, bolting forward and clothes lining her with his arm. She hit the tree branch hard and rolled off, but managed to balance her chakra to keep herself from falling. When she flipped back to the top, however, Sasuke had stopped attacking and was merely standing on another branch, the very one he had began the training session on.
Wordlessly he took his cloak and pulled it over himself again. The other three leapt to the branch beside him, with various levels of injury.
"That is enough for now," he told them. "I want to get further into the wilderness before we seriously train. A few things I noticed." His gaze flickered to Sakura. "Don't make frontal attacks. They'll fail. When you use your chakra, use it in such a manner that your opponent cannot counter it easily with a single stroke."
His gaze swiveled right. "No need to smirk, Ino-san, that applies to you, too. Also, stop relying on your body switching jutsu. There's no way it will be fast enough at this level of combat, even in its improved form. You do have other jutsu, right?"
"Of course," she said indignantly, folding her arms and glaring at Sakura. Sasuke merely nodded curtly and glanced to Hinata.
"You're holding back. Against me and against real opponents. Because you aren't willing to be aggressive you sacrifice a lot of your potential. You didn't hit me with a real inner coils attack, and you've waited to trigger your fatal jutsu in your opponents. Most of the time you have to struggle to make yourself strike, and you lose a fraction of a second you can't afford. Stop it."
"I-I'm sorry."
"Don't be sorry; fix it." Sasuke turned away from them with a whirl of his dark cloak. In an instant he dropped to the forest floor and began walking back toward the campsite. "You have ten minutes to get ready," he told them without looking. "Then we depart."
"Hoo," Sakura breathed as soon as he was gone. "This is going to be intense."
"He certainly had a lot of bad things to say about you," Ino smirked.
"As opposed to you? He specifically implied you had my problems and others! Of course, he was really down on Hinata-chan," Sakura pointed out, glancing at her. Ino lost all urge to argue, and she glanced back at Hinata with a strange look.
"I'm kind of surprised about that. Sasuke-kun isn't generally that mean."
"I-I don't think he meant it that way," Hinata answered softly. "He was just trying to help us get better. A-and he is right about me."
"That's true," Ino admitted selflessly. "In any case, we'll probably be training quite a bit more. With Sasuke-kun, we might actually get better. I was thinking-" Sasuke's voice called "Eight minutes," from below, and they all rushed to get ready. There was still a long day ahead of them.
I found the comment regarding Shikamaru moving interesting. For the sake of this story, yes, it was better to have him move. Seeing as that Sand and Leaf are allies (much more strongly so than in the past, given their Kages), however, it isn't a very big deal.
Glad to hear you liked Shikamaru and Temari together, Kesshin; I enjoyed writing their scenes quite a bit.
Regarding the jutsu Sasuke used against Ino and Sakura in the previous chapter: it was a fairly basic Mangekyou Sharingan technique (how he gotthat I simply won't specify). It does essentially what the jutsu Itachi used against Kakashi did: it invades the mind of the target and alters their reality. However, this was a much weaker version, consuming less chakra and doing only minor things such as making them fall asleep. It also more or less blanked memory of itself.