Red Moon Assassin
By: Gardie
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and related things. I just enjoy it and write fan fiction.
AN: I've finally finished this story. I know it wasn't my best ever but I got a little discouraged with the lack
of reviews. Still thank you to the very few of you who read and reviewed this story.
Chapter 8
Sakura told Kimimaro and Gaara the location of the shrine where the scroll was hidden. It had originally been in the middle of a forest but now it was in the centre of a thick jungle. As soon as they could Kimi, Gaara and Sakura left to beat Ino to get to the shrine and save the scroll.
Ino was now outside of the city and heading for a hidden encampment a short way from the city walls. It was a Silently Cheeping Bird's camp. As Kimi had suspected Ino was a spy for The Silently Cheeping Birds. The leader of The Silently Cheeping Birds had noticed that a lot of the people who were protected by Red Moon were sent to Shikamaru's farm and had figured out that Itachi and Shikamaru were friends and working together and sent an agent to work undercover there. It was probably Itachi's only real screw-up. As it was the person who had figured out his mistake was none other than his long lost baby brother who he'd never met. Ino confidently strode through the camp until she reached Sasuke's tent. Neji and Temari had just left.
"Is Sasuke in?" demanded Ino.
"Ino-san!" exclaimed Neji in surprise, "What are you doing back here? Aren't you following our clue?"
"I don't need to; I've acquired the information we need."
"Already?" asked Temari in disbelief.
"Of course. I'm not at your levels; now move aside."
Neji and Temari backed away, leaving Ino an unobstructed path to Sasuke's tent.
The inside of the tent was dark, as were almost all of Sasuke's rooms. Ino could see Sasuke sitting and facing away from here.
"Sasuke-kun! I'm back!" she cried happily, running forward and hugging him tightly.
"Did you find it, Ino?" asked Sasuke bluntly, ignoring the fact Ino was hanging on him like a giant engorged tick from Resident Evil Outbreak File 2.
"Of course," said Ino dismissively, "Have I ever failed?"
"Not yet."
Ino kissed Sasuke's cheeky before sitting in front of him.
"The scroll is hidden in a shrine which is located in the Malakian Forest (like the guy in System of a Down)."
"Good. It shouldn't take more than two or three days to get there."
"There will be one small problem though," warned Ino.
"What's that?"
"Itachi's assassins will undoubtedly come after us. It will be a race to reach the scroll first."
"Couldn't you have killed them?" asked Sasuke, mildly irritated.
"They are too strong," Ino replied, "I couldn't have done it alone. It would require a lot of manpower."
"It's not too bad. As long as we get the scroll first we can use it to decimate our opponents. Get everyone ready to leave."
"Of course, love."
In order to waste no time and at the same time take Ino with them to the shrine Gaara and Kimi turned to common thievery. Killing whoever it took to keep them supplied with fresh horses so that they could travel at an almost perpetual gallop.
Sasuke also knew they had to move quickly, even though he had a slight head-start, and so only the best ninja were allowed to accompany him and Ino. Neji and Temari each brought a team. Neji brought Ukon and Sakon, Shino and Tenten while Temari brought Kiba and Akamaru, Naruto and Hinata. All the other ninja were left behind and Sasuke led his ninja at the maximum possible speed to Malakian forest.
The shrine was a four sided pyramid that extended down into the earth. One each side was a different door and they each led to the centre were the scroll was. It wasn't a nice clear run though; each path was a completely separate maze complete with deadly traps and pitfalls awaiting any unwary traveller foolish enough to try to acquire the scroll.
Sasuke and Kimi had both pushed their teams hard, Kimi held back by Sakura and Sasuke held back by not having horses, and arrived within a half an hour of each other at separate doors.
"Stay close," Kimi warmed Sakura as they entered their tunnel, "There are probably traps."
"We'll be able to stop them," stated Gaara confidently.
"Probably," agreed Kimi, "But it can't hurt to be cautious."
No sooner had he said that when a blade swung out of the wall at his stomach. His arm shot in to block, bone growing over his palm and hardening in less time than it would take to blink. There was a loud metallic clang and the blade was held motionless by his hand. Sakura had turned white.
"We can survive this level," declared Kimi.
Sasuke was in the centre of his group, Ino, Neji and Temari in front, the others bringing up the rear. Neji's Byakugan was active and he pointed out the traps he spotted to Temari. She lunged forward at Neji's signal, activating a volley of spears. Ready for it she flipped her fan open and used her kamaitachi to slice then into sawdust. A rumble from behind attracted everyone's attention. Somehow Neji had missed a trigger and a large boulder was bearing down on the group.
"Run!" commanded Sasuke.
"We could stop it," argued Ino.
"Don't bother; it will force us to travel as fast as possible."
Unfortunately Hinata tripped on an uneven stone and fell. Naruto heard her cry and ran back to help her.
"Leave her!" shouted Ino.
"No!" shouted Naruto, "I'll stop this boulder!"
Naruto ran past Hinata to the boulder and punched it full-force. Normally Naruto's blow would destroy the boulder but this one had been prepared for a strong attack and kept going, crushing both Naruto and Hinata with sickening squelching sounds.
"Che!" swore Sasuke, "Stupid boulder's killing my ninja."
In a flash he charged his chakra and created a sparking ball of blue energy around his hand. As the grey boulder, covered with bright red splashes bore down on him he just pointed his hand with the chidori in front of him and stood still.
"Sasuke!" cried Ino as the boulder hit in.
The tunnel they were in was filled with dirty smoke and a loud explosion almost deafened them. When the smoke cleared and the sound of small pieces of rock falling ceased they saw Sasuke walking calmly toward them.
"Let's go," he stated simply.
Ino sighed with relief and followed him.
"You're two ninja down," Neji baited Temari.
"You're right," snarled Temari as she cut down Shino with her fan, "But you're not doing so well either."
"Stop your bickering," chastised Sasuke, "Other wise you two might be next."
After bringing everyone back into order Sasuke led his team deeper into the maze, leaving the three bodies of his previous comrades behind. Lost beetles crawling out of Shino's corpse, clueless as to what had just happened.
Kimi's trio was walking easily down the corridor, Gaara's sand coating the walls in front and behind them for a few metres, preventing any harm from coming to the small group. In just a short time they made it into the inner sanctum of the shrine and saw Sasuke, Ino, Temari, Neji, Sakon and Ukon, Kiba and Akamaru and Tenten.
This chamber was a massive hollow dome, a large statue of Orochimaru at one side and in his mouth was the scroll.
"Stop this at once!" shouted Kimi, "That scroll is Sakura's."
"Sakura told me where it was," said Ino smoothly, "She meant it to be mine."
"Liar!" shouted Sakura, "You tricked me! You're nothing but a deceitful worm in a rotting apple."
"Oh?"
"Kill them," commanded Sasuke emotionlessly.
"I'll take Sakura," said Ino, "You must kill the other two. Be careful, they're incredibly strong."
Kimi moved as fast as he could and stood between Sasuke and the scroll.
"This one's mine," muttered Sasuke, "Get the red-haired one."
Neji and Temari held back while their ninja all advanced on Gaara.
Ino stepped in front of Sakura.
"I bet you've got a little bit of unresolved anger don't you?" asked Ino sweetly, flicking her long blonde hair.
Sakura said nothing, her furious expression saying all that needed to be said. Sakura pulled back her fist and threw a punch straight at Ino's nose. Ino reacted instinctively and grabbed Sakura's fist in mid-air.
"You're going to have to do better than that."
Ino then punched Sakura in the stomach, causing her to double over and gasp for breath.
"Heh, heh. How're you going to fight all of us?" Ukon asked Gaara.
"Have you hurt of the demon of the sand, Shukaku? He'll kill you all and feed on your blood!"
"Huh? You're not all there. Look Sakon, he's drooling."
"Careful!" called Kiba, "His chakra's increasing!"
Gaara's pupils disappeared, leaving his eyes blank and white; sand covered his body and formed a hard covering making him look like a miniature Shukaku. The slashed with his clawed arm and it extended to the right range to hit his opponents but they all managed to jump out of the way.
"Akamaru! Full power!"
Kiba threw Akamaru a soldier pill and the two fused to become a giant two-headed wolf. Sakon and Ukon split and went to cursed level two. Tenten having nothing special to do to increase her power was forced to just pull out her two scrolls and prepare to unleash a hailstorm of edged weapons.
"Are you going to get out of my way or do I have to kill you?" asked Sasuke.
"You cannot kill me, Orochimaru is with me."
Black lines covered Kimimaro's body and he went t o cursed seal level one.
"Interesting," commented Sasuke, "But can you reach the second level?"
Sasuke activated his own cursed seal and maxed it out at level two.
"Of course," answered Kimimaro, raising his own seal to level two, feeling as he grew a tail and his bones extended out of his skin, "Let's do this."
The two leapt at each other and began trading high powered blows. Using techniques that would have devastated entire legions of lesser enemies but neither one was yet able to gain an advantage.
Ino's elbow crashed into Sakura's nose and bright blood flecked her face. Sakura feebly attempted to hit Ino again but once again was stopped by Ino's far superior abilities.
"Give it up, Sakura. You've failed. You've failed your friends. You've failed your duty. And you've failed yourself."
With her last words Ino twisted both of Sakura's arms unnaturally and the wet snap of her bones breaking echoed through the chamber.
Sasuke had already activated his sharingan and with its help he saw his chance as Kimimaro turned to look at Sakura and hit him in the chest with a chidori. Kimimaro was flung back wards and crashed into a weak wall and was buried by an avalanche of small stones.
Gaara hit off his attackers and ran to Sakura's aid. He chased Ino away from Sakura and stood between her and her enemies. He noticed Neji and Temari were no longer in the main chamber but he didn't have time to worry about that as he was badly outnumbered and his sand armour was slowly being torn off him grain by grain.
Sasuke climbed unimpeded to the scroll and was about to touch it when he noticed a large snake slithering towards him, hissing warningly. He threw his last kunai and easily cleaved the snake's head in two. At that instant time seemed to stand still and a purple fire erupted next to Sasuke. Sasuke jumped back and prepared to fight. The flames died down to reveal the snake god, Orochimaru.
"O-Orochimaru!" stammered Sasuke.
"O-Orochimaru," came Kimimaro's voice weakly.
The rubble was thrown aside and Kimi stepped out, bleeding in several places and barely able to stand.
"Sasuke-kun," said Orochimaru, "Why'd you kill my little guardian? That was very irresponsible of you."
Sasuke couldn't say anything but stammer nonsense uncontrollably.
"As punishment I will transform you into a snake."
"No," whispered Sasuke, but it was too late and his body shimmered and blurred into a large blue python.
Desperate to get away Sasuke began to slither away but Gaara tore a shruiken from his arm and chucked it deeper into Sasuke's brain, killing him instantly. Ino let out a cry of sadness and ran, sobbing, to her fallen love.
Orochimaru then walked to Sakura, who had fainted, and healed her arms.
"She wasn't the best guardian but that's too bad. I don't need a guardian for the scroll anymore; I've decided to remove it from this planet."
Gaara was just as speechless as Sasuke, but spared from suffering the same fate. Sasuke's remaining ninja slowly crept away down a passage but they couldn't escape Orochimaru's displeasure and the sound of their screams assured Gaara that they had been unable to avoid one of the traps.
"I will leave now," stated Orochimaru.
"W-wait," called Kimimaro, "Take me with you, Orochimaru-sama."
Orochimaru turned to see Kimimaro slowly crawling towards him, a trail of blood marking his path.
"Very well, Kimimaro, my most valued servant."
Then the two disappeared in purple flames.
"Ahhh!"
Ino's scream made Gaara turn just in time to see her slit her throat with the shruiken Gaara had killed Sasuke with. Silently Gaara picked up Sakura and carried her away from the scene of death.
Way away in the shrine Neji and Temari faced each other, their intense hate for each other almost fulfilled; each knew that it would only take one more hit to finish them off. They also knew that their opponent couldn't survive so when they struck it was with out thought or fear for their own safety. Neji's jyuuken hit Temari ion the forehead, scrambling her brain as her fan messily decapitated him and the two bodies collapsed together.
The End
